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SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 




X. 



SCENES 

FROM THE LIFE OF 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



BY 

LOUIS a/holman 



REPRODUCTIONS OF PAINTINGS 

BY CHARLES B. MILLS 

IN THE FRANKLIN UNION, BOSTON 




BOSTON 

SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 

MCMXVI 



.rsHro' 



Copyright, 1916 

Bt Small, Matnard & Company 

Boston 



Illustrations coptrigiit. 1909, 1911, 191i, 1913 
By The Fr.4Nklin Foiindation 



PRESS OF 

MCBBAY AND E-MERT COMPANY 

CAMBRIDGE 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface xi 

Franklin the Boy 1 

Franklin the Printer 9 

Franklin the Builder of Forts 15 

Franklin the Librarian 21 

Franklin the Editor 27 

Franklin the Scientist 37 

Franklin the Patriot: Abroad 47 

Franklin the Patriot: At Home 65 

Franklin the Diplomatist: In France 71 

Franklin's Final Home-Coming 79 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Franklin Union Frontispiece 



y 



Opposite Page 

Franklin Selling Ballads on the Streets of Boston 1 / 

Franklin the Printer's 'Prentice 9 "^ 

Franklin Building Fort Allen \5^ 

Franklin Librarian of the Library Company of , 

Philadelphia 21 

Franklin the Editor 27 '^ 

Franklin Makjng His Famous Scientific Experiment 37 '""^ 

Franklin at the Bar of the House of Commons . . 47 '^ 

Franklin Signing the Declaration of Independence 65 ^ 

Franklin Signing the Treaty of Alliance 71'^ 

Franklin's Final Home-Coming 79 



SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



PREFACE 

THE paintings which form the subject of this volume 
constitute the frieze in the entrance hall of the 
Franklin Union Building on Berkeley Street in 
Franklin's native town, Boston. It is fitting that reference 
should be made to the fund which has produced Franklin 
Union and to the work which this institution is accomplish- 
ing. No better description could be given of the origin of 
the bequest than that penned by Franlvlin himself in the 
codicil of his will written in June, 1789, from which the 
following paragraphs are selected. 

"It having long been a fixed political opinion of mine, 
that in a democratical State, there ought to be no Offices of 
Profit, for the reasons I had given in an Article of my drawing 
in our Constitution, it was my intention when I accepted the 
Office of President* to devote the appointed Salary to some 
public Uses, ... I do hereby . . . direct that the certifi- 
cates I have for what remains due to me of that Salary be 
sold towards raising the Sum of Two thousand Pounds Ster- 
ling, to be disposed of as I am now about to order." 

"I was born in Boston, New England and owe my first 
instructions in Literature, to the free Grammar Schools es- 
tablished there: I have therefore already considered those 
Schools in my Will.f But I am also under obligations to the 
State of the Massachusetts, for having unasked appointed 
me formerly their Agent in England with a handsome Salary : 
which continued some years: and altho' I accidentally lost, 
in their service, by transmitting Governor Hutchinson's 
Letter much more than the amount of what they gave me, I 

* Of Pennsylvania. t Franklin Medals. 

xi 



PREFACE 

do not think that ought in the least to diminish my 
Gratitude. 

"I have considered that among Artisans good Apprentices 
are most likely to make good Citizens, and having myself 
been bred to a manual Art Printing, in my native Town, and 
afterwards assisted to set up my business in Philadelphia by 
kind loan of Money from two Friends there, which was the 
foundation of my Fortune, and of all the utility in life that 
may be ascribed to me, I wish to be useful even after my 
Death, if possible, in forming and advancing other young men 
that may be serviceable to their Country in. both those 
Towns. 

"To this End I devote Two thousand Pounds SterHng, 
which I give, one thousand thereof to the Inhabitants of the 
Town of Boston, in Massachusetts, and the other thousand 
to the Inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, in Trust to and 
for the Uses, Interests and Purposes hereinafter mentioned 
and declared. 

"The said sum of One thousand Pounds Sterling, if 
accepted by the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, shall be 
managed under the direction of the Select Men, united with 
the IMinisters of the oldest Episcopalian, Congregational and 
Presbyterian Churches in that Town; who are to let out the 
same upon Interest at five per cent per Annum to such young 
married artificers, under the Age of twenty-five years, as have 
served an Apprenticeship in the said town; . . . And in order 
to serve as many as possible in their Turn, as well as to make 
the Repayment of the principal borrowed more easy, each 
Borrower shall be obliged tojiay with the yearly Interest, one 
tenth part of the principal, which Sums of Principal and Inter- 
est so paid in, shall be again let out to fresh Borrowers. And 
as it is presumed that there will always be found in Boston 
virtuous and benevolent Citizens willing to bestow a part of 
their Time in doing good to the rising Generation by Super- 

xii 



PREFACE 

intending and managing this Institution gratis, it is hoped that 
no part of the Money will at any time lie dead or be diverted 
to other purposes, but be continually augmenting by the 
Interest, . . . 

"If this plan is executed and succeeds as projected without 
interruption for one hundred Years, the Sum will then be one 
hundred and thirty-one thousand Pounds of which I would 
have the Managers of the Donation to the Town of Boston, 
then lay out at their discretion one hundred thousand Pounds 
in Public Works which may be judged of most general utility 
to the inhabitants such as Fortifications, Bridges, Aqueducts, 
Public Building, Baths, Pavements or whatever may make 
living in the Town more convenient to its People and render 
it more agreeable to strangers, resorting thither for Health or 
a temporary residence. The remaining thirty-one thousand 
Pounds, I would have continued to be let out on Interest in 
the manner above directed for another hundred Years, as I 
hope it will have been found that the Institution has had a 
good effect on the conduct of Youth, and been of Service to 
many worthy Characters and useful Citizens. At the end of 
this second Term, if no unfortunate accident has prevented 
the operation the sum will be Four Millions and Sixty one 
thousand Pounds Sterling, of which I leave one Million sixty 
one Thousand Pounds to the Disposition of the Inhabitants 
of the Town of Boston and Three ^Millions to the disposition 
of the Government of the State, not presuming to carry my 
views farther." 

"Considering the accidents to which all human Affairs 
and Projects are subject in such a length of Time, I have per- 
haps too much flattered myself with a vain Fancy, that these 
Dispositions, if carried into execution, will be continued with- 
out interruption, and have the Effects proposed: I hope, how- 
ever, that if the Inhabitants of the two Cities should not 

xiii 



PREFACE 

think fit to undertake the execution they will at least accept 
the offer of these Donations as a Mark of my good- Will, a 
token of my Gratitude and a Testimony of my earnest desire 
to be useful to them even after my departure. ..." 

Owing to changing industrial conditions, the provision 
for letting out the money to young artificers did not meet 
with the success Franklin anticipated and since 1836 the fund 
has been cared for by ordinary investment. Virtuous and 
benevolent citizens have not been lacking and at the end of 
one hundred years, on July 1, 1891, the total fund amounted 
to $391,168.68. This fund, which was less than that estimated 
by Franklin, was divided and the two parts proportioned ac- 
cording to the will. On October 20, 1893, the City of Boston's 
portion was adjudged to be $322,-490.20 (Franklin Fund, first 
part), while on June, 190*2, the balance to remain on interest 
for one hundred years after 1891 was $102,455.70 (Franklin 
Fund, second part). It became necessary to ask the Supreme 
Court to construe Franklin's will, which resulted in the ap- 
pointment of a Board of ]\Ianagers by the Court, consisting 
of twelve "citizens," including the mayor and the ministers 
as specified in the will. By Chapter 569, of the year 1908, 
the Massachusetts Legislature incorporated the Board as The 
Franklin Foundation. 

An industrial school seemed in the judgment of the man- 
agers to be the public work of most general utility to the in- 
habitants of Boston. The building and equipment is the 
result of this bequest of Benjamin Franklin, the land on which 
the building stands being provided by the City of Boston, and 
the first step toward a maintenance fund being in the form of 
a donation by Mr. Andrew Carnegie of $408,000, an amount 
equal to the first part of the Franklin Fund in December, 
1905. 

The building was completed in 1908 at a cost of $364,000. 

xiv 



PREFACE 

An additional sum of $61,000 has since been expended for 
equipment. Franklin Union was opened for students in 
September, 1908, with a registration of five hundred and four- 
teen (514) men, handled by thirteen (13) instructors. The 
growth of the school has been exceptionally rapid, in 1915 
reaching fifteen hundred and eighty-seven (1587) students and 
fifty-five (55) instructors. During the first seven years, over 
eight thousand different men enrolled as students. The instruc- 
tion is intended to supplement the work of men employed in 
the trades or industries, with subjects selected from the fields 
of civil engineering, industrial chemistry, electricity, drafting, 
naval architecture, machine design, pharmacy, automobile 
engines and steam engineering. The average age of the stu- 
dents enrolled has been over twenty-five years, several years 
the senior of the graduates of college or technical school. A 
most complete engineering and scientific equipment in the 
hands of experts selected from the industries, and from the 
staffs of the neighboring technical schools, enables Franklin 
Union to make men more efficient in their work, to improve 
their skill, inteUigence and earning power, and thus to bring 
benefit to their families, to their employers and to the 
community. 

The mottoes accompanying the paintings are, with one 
exception, from the writings of Franklin. They are as 
follows : 

"He that hath a Trade hath an Eftate." 
"The found of your Hammer at five in the morning or 
nine at night heard by a Creditor makes him eafy six months 
longer." 

"It has ever been a Pleafure to me to see Good Workmen 
handle their tools." 

"When men are employed they are beft contented." 
"Every act of Oppreffion will Sour their Tempers leffen 
greatly if not Annihilate the Profits of your Commerce with 

XV 



PREFACE 

them and Haften their final Revolt for the seeds of Liberty 
are Univerfally found there and Nothing can Eradicate them." 

"They that won't be Counfelled cannot be helped." 

"Those who would give up Effential Liberty for a little 
Temporary Safety deferve neither Liberty nor Safety." 

"We muft all Hang Together or Affuredly we fhall all 
Hang Separately." 

"Without Juftice Courage is Weak." 

"One whom all Europe held in high Eftimation for his 
Knowledge and Wifdom who was an Honor not to the Englifh 
nation only but to Human Nature." — Lord Chatham. 

"The Nobleft Queftion in the W^orld is what Good may I 
do in it." 

"I would rather haAe it said He Lived Ufefully than He 
Died Rich." 

"Being Ignorant is not fo much a Shame as being Un- 
willing to Learn." 

"The Doors of Wifdom are never fhut." 

"Read much but not too many Books." 

"I hope the Peace may be lafting and that the free Consti- 
tution we now enjoy may long contribute to promote our com- 
mon Felicity." 

"May we never see another W'ar! for in my opinion there 
never was a good War or a bad Peace." 



xn 




FRANKLIN SELLIM. I'.ALLAUS ON THE STREETS OF BOSTON 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was a product of Boston in 
every sense of the word. He was born here, January 
17 (N. S.), 1706, in a Httle wooden house on Milk 
Street. Just across the way stood the Old Cedar Meeting 
House, replaced a few years after Franklin left Boston by the 
present "Old South." Here, on the day of his birth, he was 
baptized. It was in the Puritan Boston of the early eighteenth 
century that Franklin spent his boyhood; then, happily, too 
late to feel the bitter intolerance of that earlier Boston which 
had banished non-conformists and executed Quakers and 
witches. His home was a happy one and wisely ordered. Of 
luxury there was none, but Franklin assures us that of the 
needful things there was always a plenty. Attention was 
paid to the head as well as to the heart; there was good cheer 
at all times. As Franklin was the fifteenth child in the family 
(with two yet to come), he was no novelty and ran small 
chance of being spoiled. It is an interesting thing to note, 
since Franklin is often spoken of as one of the best educated 
men of the time, that his school education began at the 
Boston Grammar School, when he was eight years of age, and 
that Master George Brownell put the finishing touches on it 
when he was ten. Short as was his school career, it was 
fresh in Franklin's mind when he made his will many years 
later, for he says therein: "I was born in Boston, New Eng- 
land, and owe my first instructions in Literature to the free 
Grammar Schools established there: I have therefore con- 
sidered these Schools in my Will." Thousands of the "best 
scholars" of the Boston schools have received the much 

[page 1 ] 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

coveted silver medals which Franklin's generosity provided. 
These medals still serve with each generation to keep green 
the memory of one of the most famous of Boston school- 
boys. 

After leaving school, where he made a pitiable showing 
in mathematics, he worked as his father's assistant in the 
tallow-candle business for about two years. Then, at the 
mature age of twelve, he signed apprentice indentures with 
his brother James, who was editor and publisher of The 
New England Coiirant, America's fourth newspaper. James 
showed himself jealous and thrifty rather than brotherly in 
his relations with, perhaps, the most valuable apprentice that 
master printer ever had; while the boy, on his part, was im- 
pertinent, wise beyond his years, and thoroughly convinced 
of his own importance. It was not an enviable situation for 
either brother. Finally, when he had served his brother about 
two-thirds of the specified time, the apprentice in no very 
dignified manner brought the affair to an abrupt end by 
running away. 

Although Boston had had her son Franklin in her keeping 
less than eighteen years, she nourished him and made him 
what he was. She was, indeed, his alma mater, and when he 
left her the formative period of his life was past, and he went 
forth, with all his virtues and his faults, a mature man in 
everything but years. This was in 1723, a decade before 
Washington was born. Thus, while the first sovereign of the 
House of Brunswick was struggling to pronounce in English 
the names of his new possessions, a runaway 'prentice boy 
of His Majesty's colony of Massachusetts Bay was already 
developing into a leader of the men who were to wrest from 
the king's great-grandson a large share of the royal dominion. 

"Franklin upon the whole," says his biographer, James 
Parton, "spent a very happy boyhood, and his heart yearned 
toward Boston as long as he lived. When he was eighty-two 

[page 2 ] 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

years old, he spoke of it as 'that beloved place.' He said in 
the same letter that he would dearly like to ramble again 
over the scenes of so many innocent pleasures; and as that 
could not be, he had a singular pleasure in the company and 
conversation of its inhabitants. 'The Boston manner,' he 
touchingly adds, 'the turn of phrase, and even the tone of 
voice and accent in pronunciation, all please and seem to 
revive and refresh me.' " The FrankUn Institute, the gift of 
a grateful son to his native place, bears eloquent testimony to 
the sincerity of these words of Franklin. He returned to Bos- 
ton in 1724 to consult with his father, and again visited his 
native place in 1733, 1743, 1753, 1763. He saw it for the 
last time from Cambridge in 1775. 

When Franklin was about fifteen and had been an ap- 
prentice some three years, his brother James saw a chance to 
use the lad in a way not nominated in the bond, but agreeable 
to both parties. It promised to feed their vanity and fill their 
pockets. This was that the boy should indulge the family 
fondness for rhyming, of which he had given evidence some 
seven years before, and write ballads upon current events. 
These were to be printed and sold on the street by himself. 
There was abundant precedent for this, if Franklin even in 
his youth ever felt the need of such support. At that time in 
America and England ballad writing and selling was a lucra- 
tive adjunct of the printer's trade. The products of the pen 
of a Bostonian named Fleet were so popular in Franklin's 
day that he derived from them alone sufficient remunera- 
tion to support his family. Franklin's grandfather, Peter 
Folger, and his Uncle Benjamin used very frequently to dis- 
pense wisdom in sugar-coated pills of pious rhyme. Their 
young kinsman may have felt that from both sides of the 
house he inherited the abihty to produce acceptable ballads. 
In any case he summoned the tragic muse and wrote two 
ballads. A verse from one of these, recounting the capture 

[page 3] 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

of the famous pirate, Edward Teach (Blaekbeard), is given 
in Weems's " FrankUn." It reads: 
"Come all you jolly sailors, 
You all so stout and brave; 
Come hearken and I'll tell you 
WTiat happen'd on the wave. 
Oh! 'tis of that bloody Blaekbeard 

I'm going now for to tell; 
And as how by gallant Maynard 

He soon was sent to hell — 
With a down, down, down, derry down." 

The other was entitled "The Light-house Tragedy." Of 
it we unfortunately have not so much as a line, but even 
without this doubtless conclusive evidence we are prepared 
to accept Frankhn's own statement that both ballads were 
" wretched stuflF." 

Parton says that Franklin inherited the family propensity 
for rhyming but that he also inherited "the family inability 
to rhyme well." 

Although the Blaekbeard ballad was not a "best seller," 
the other one went off rapidly. Naturally the boy was de- 
lighted. But his father pointed out that "verse-makers were 
generally beggars," and he showed him that in the long run 
he would be better off in mastering a good prose style rather 
than in writing doggerel ballads. To the credit of the youth 
be it said that he looked the matter squarely in the face and 
followed his father's advice. The world owes Josiah Franklin 
a thousand thanks for what it gained in Frankhn's prose — 
and for what it was spared of Franklin's verse. 



The first painting in Mr. Mills's series shows the boy 
Franklin offering his ballads for sale in front of the Town 
House (Old State House) on Washington Street, then known 

[page 4 ] 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

as Cornhill. As the earliest authentic portrait of Franklin 
was painted when he was fifty, the portrait here is wholly 
imaginary, yet we can well believe that the face of the boy 
before us would develop all the characteristics of the Franklin 
face that we know so well. 

Careful research and faitliful adherence to the data found 
render the costunaes in this painting as well as those in all 
of the series historically correct. The little shoulder capes 
and full skirts, marked features of the women's dress of that 
day, are shown here. The matronly lady in the hood is 
glancing at Frankhn as he "cries his wares," or perhaps she 
is attracted by the younger woman's smart straw hat, for 
"straws" were then "just coming in." 

On the side of the State House may be seen the Bulletin 
Board for posting notices of the sailing of ships. Although 
bears were still shot from Long Wharf as they swam across 
the harbor, we read that almost every day now some sort of 
craft entered and cleared the port of Boston, while about once 
a week there was an arrival from England. The town, which 
contained about 12,000 persons, was essentially an Enghsh 
town. It held two great fairs annually and did not forget to 
honor the King's Birthday in May nor to rejoice over the ar- 
rest of Guy Fawkes in November. The much-talked-of cows 
that had assisted in laying out Boston's streets were already 
things of the past, but real cows, that of the Franklin family 
among them, grazed uninterruptedly on the historic Common. 

The escort of the lady who is casting envious glances at 
the new straw hat is apparently reading the titles of the books 
in the window of John Checkley's book-store — for this 
probably was his store. Boston, even in that early day, was 
fond of books and supported about ten book-stores. Old 
Cornhill was the centre of the trade. Daniel Henchman's 
store on the corner of King (now State) Street may be seen 
in the painting. He Uved with his family in the good old 

[page 5 ] 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

English way "above the business." Henchman's store occu- 
pied the site of the house of Captain Keayne, who generously 
presented to Boston the first Town House. He was, too, the 
organizer of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company 
of Boston. The book-store of Nicholas Boone was near by, 
and on the corner of Water Street — to the left of the old 
coach that is going down Cornhill, may be seen the Heart 
and Crown Printing Office. One door this way is the Blue 
Anchor Tavern, with its sign overhanging the street. Oppo- 
site is the store of William Jackson, known as the Brazen Head, 
the swinging sign of which (in the painting) hides a portion 
of the old Cedar Meeting House. Its belfry as here shown is 
correct and comes from the British Museum copy of Price's 
Map of Boston. The building this side of the church is the 
Governor Winthrop mansion, which was destroyed by the 
British troops during the occupation of Boston in 1775. 



Buildings, Sites, Etc., Associated with Franklin, 
Still to be Seen About Boston 

1. The Old State House standing on the corner of State and 
Washington Streets has recently been restored, so that it looks 
much as it did in Franklin's time, when it was the Town House. 

2. On Unity Street in the North End (No. 19) can still be 
seen the house which Franklin provided as a home for his 
sisters Elizabeth and Jane. 

3. In possession of the Bostonian Society, in the Old State 
House, is the printing-press from James Franklin's office, at 
which his 'prentice brother worked. 

4. Here, too, will be found the Blue Ball, dated 1698, 
which Josiah Franklin erected as a sign over the door of his 
two tallow-chandleries. 

5. There are two records of the birth of "Benjamin, Son 
of Josiah Frankhng and Abiah his Wife born 6 Jan'y 1706." 

[PAGE 6 1 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

One may be seen at the Old South Meeting House, and the 
other at the Registry Department, City Hall. 

6. In the Old Granary Burial Ground an obelisk marks 
the graves of the parents of Frankhn, bearing an inscription 
written by their famous son. 

7. Here, too, may be seen the grave-stone of Franklin's 
good old Uncle Benjamin, who had interested himself in the 
lad's welfare years before he crossed the Western Ocean to 
spend his last days with the family in Boston. 

8. In front of City Hall stands Greenough's statue of 
Franklin, erected in 1856, Boston's first portrait statue. 

9. Within a stone's throw is the site of James Franklin's 
printing office, where his young brother learned the rudiments 
of the printer's trade. A small bronze tablet marks the spot 
on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Court Street. 

10. Another tablet will be found on the site of the birth- 
place, 17 Milk Street, near Washington. 

11. Another site of interest to the lovers of Frankhn is the 
southeast corner of Hanover and Union Streets, which marks the 
spot where stood his boyhood's home, above his father's shop. 

12. About No. 339 Washington Street is the site of the 
shop in which Josiah Franklin was doing business when 
Benjamin was born. 

13. In the Boston Public Library, by inquiring in Bates 
Hall, one will be shown two original oil portraits of Franklin, 
one by Duplessis, and the other by Greuze, both painted 
while he was resident at Passy near Paris, as representative 
of the newly formed republic. 

14. There is in the Harvard Memorial Hall a so-called 
portrait of Franklin, said to have been painted during the year 
he spent in London as a journeyman printer, but there is 
grave doubt about its genuineness. 

15. The Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge, contains 
an electric machine given to Harvard College by Franklin. 

[page 7] 



FRANKLIN THE BOY 

16. In the library of the Masonic Temple, Boston, is 
preserved Fisher's mezzotint of Chamberlin's portrait of 
Franklin, on the reverse of which, in Franklin's hand, is the 
inscription, "For Mrs. Dorcas Stickney in Newbury." Mrs. 
Stickney, who was his niece, received Franklin's gift from 
Paris in 1778, with the word that the sender considered it 
his best portrait. 



[page 8] 



FRAXKLIX THE PRINTER 

THE Xeic England Courant, Xo. SO. From Monday 
February 4, to Monday February 11, 17'-23," 
was received by Boston with mixed feelings. 
Many there were who took honest satisfaction in the plucky 
fight the little paper was making for free speech. Others, of 
the more vulgar sort, loudly applauded its bald and often 
unnecessarily insulting flings at the Governor, the Council, 
the ministers, and the church-goers. These would have taken 
as great a deUght in a dog-fight, but there were many of 
them, and their laughter at the awkward position in which 
the paper's every move left the dignitaries was knowingly 
taken advantage of by James FrankHn and his apprentice 
brother, Benjamin. To those who had ears to hear, and there 
were not a few on either side, this latest number of the 
Courant covertly yet plainly said "Checkmate." 

Official and ultra-religious Boston was amazed and deeply 
chagrined; once again it had been circumvented. In its 
attempt to change the tone of this exasperating httle sheet, 
James Franklin, its editor and proprietor, had been thro\lPn 
into prison; but the expected improvement was not discern- 
ible. In fact, those who searched diUgently for it were shocked 
to find instead satirical arguments and eloquent essays not 
only more candid and forceful than their predecessors, but 
considerably more numerous. One thing remained to do: 
forthwith an order was issued strictly forbidding James Frank- 
hn "to print or pubhsh the New England Courant, or any 
pamphlet, or paper of the like nature, except it be supervised 
by the Secretary of this Pro^•ince." In Xo. 80, of the Courant, 
James Franklin announced that this stipulation was so in- 
convenient and unprofitable that he had "entirely dropt the 

[page 9 ] 



FR-\XXLIX THE PRINTER 

undertaking/" The new publisier announced that the Cour- 
ani was now ''designed purely for the Diversion and Merriment 
of the Reader." but in a footnote the reader is informed that 
the new pubUsher is Benjamin Franklin .' So the authorities, 
in their blundering efforts to extract one thorn from their 
side, had but driven in a worse one. 

The seventeen-year-old editor and publisher, with unusual 
skill and youthful enthusiasm, thrust at his antagonists time 
and again, cleverly parried the return blows, and withal so suc^ 
cessfully manaeu^■Ted the affairs of the Courani that in three 
months" time its price was increased and its edition enlarged. 

So the strife went merrily on for about six months, when 
civil war broke out in the Courani office itself, and the Frank- 
lin brothers parted in anger. By this quarrel Boston lost a 
vexatious printer's apprentice and Philadelphia gained a 
master printer, whom his adopted city and, indeed, all America 
accepts to-day as a sort of patron saint of the craft. On his 
deathbed some sixtA" -seven years afterward. Franklin re- 
quested that the printers of Philadelphia, with their em- 
ployees, be given a prominent place in his funeral procession. 
During all the intervening years Franklin woidd have de- 
scribed himself as by trade a printer. His will began: "I. 
Benjamin Franklin, printer."" and this was no affectation, for 
his interest in the craft never slackened. 

FrankHn had signed with his brothex James to serve him 
nine years as an apprentice. Curiously, this is almost exactly 
the time which he served the trade as apprentice and journey- 
man together, in Boston. Philadelphia, and London. In the 
spring of IT'iS he started in business for hiniseK. He had, in 
all, five employers, his brothex James in Boston. Samuel 
Keimer and Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia, Palmer and 
Watts in London. "With the Englishmen Franklin seems to 
have had no trouble, but with his fellow-countrymen he was 
usually at odds; in each quarrel it was a case of diamond cut 

[?iGE 10" 



FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 

diamond, and the young Bostonian always proved himself 
the sharper, although his youthful methods of dealing with 
his employers were not always commendable. As years passed, 
his ideals became higher, and from those with whom he was 
brought into contact through his trade he picked some of his 
most valued friends. William Strahan, the English printer, 
John Walter, founder of The London Times, the younger 
Fournier, celebrated printer and typefounder, and David 
Hall, the journeyman printer whom he met at Watts's office in 
London, afterwards his partner and successor, are examples 
of members of the trade with whom Franklin formed affec- 
tionate and loyal friendships, which even the Revolution did 
not disrupt. 

Franklin had great knowledge of paper, ink, types and 
presses. He took pleasure in such things always and showed 
an active interest which resulted in many improvements that 
materially advanced the art of printing. He is said to have 
been the first printer to attempt illustrating a newspaper, and 
one of the first to use display advertisements. While in Paris, 
he maintained a little private printing office, and when he 
returned to America, five years before his death, he brought a 
press and type as a present for one of his grandsons. To-day, 
one hundred and twenty-five years after his death, he remains 
the one printer whose birthday is commemorated in America 
by an annual festival. 

In 1728 he became a master printer. Although only 
twenty-two years of age, he had had a varied experience in 
the trade and had seen considerable of the world in general. 
The printing office which he opened finally developed ten 
branch offices in six of the colonies and in Jamaica, his part- 
ner in each case eventually buying out Franklin's share. 

Exactly in the middle of his Ufe (late in 1748), he retired 
from active business, his partner, David Hall, assuming con- 
trol. Eighteen years later. Hall became sole owner. 

[ P A O E 1 1 J 



FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 

Franklin was in the printing business forty-eight years. 
He served his country the same number of years in various 
capacities but he never depended upon the Government for a 
liveUhood. 

It has been pointed out that FrankHn had no great ambi- 
tion in his Hfe. His sole idea seemed to be to do each day's 
work as it came to hand. He was diligent in business and 
equally diligent in affairs of state, hence by double right he 
stood before kings and was honored of them. 



In the second painting is shown a typical early eighteenth 
century printing office. Franklin, in paper cap and leather 
apron, is working the hand-press. It is of interest to know 
that the press in the painting was painted from the identical 
press on which the young American used his muscles in 
Watts's printing establishment in London. It is now in the 
Smithsonian Institute in Washington. The type cases are 
practically the same as those in use to-day. The columns of 
type were locked up in iron chases on slabs of smooth stone, 
and the inking was done by means of padded leather balls 
with ink taken from other slabs of stone. The slabs of iron 
used for these purposes to-day retain the name of "stones." 
\Mien the form was ready to print from, it was lifted to the 
bed of the press and here inl^ed. The paper, which had 
already been dampened, was laid upon the inked form and 
covered with its "blanket." The bed carrying this form was 
then slid under the suspended iron slab, which was forced 
down by means of a screw and the long lever. The weight was 
then lifted, the bed run out, the "blanket" taken off, the 
printed sheet removed and hung up to dry; the form was re- 
inked and the whole process repeated indefinitely. The ap- 
prentice on the right is getting the ink into proper condition 
to use upon the form as soon as Franklin will have com- 

[PAGE 12] 



FRANKLIN THE PRINTER 

pleted the impression already in the press. The pegs on the 
uprights of the press behind the apprentice are used for hold- 
ing the ink rolls when not in use. The large lye pot in the lower 
right-hand corner was used for washing the type. 

The long hair gathered up loosely at the neck gives the 
men a rather feminine appearance. Although no women are 
shown in this printing office, they were employed as composi- 
tors at this period. The daughters of James Franklin assisted 
their widowed mother in the printing office which their father 
had established at Newport, R. I., while their younger brother 
was learning the business in Philadelphia in the establishment 
of his Uncle Benjamin. Wlien James Franklin set up his 
office in Newport, he carried thither the press on which 
Benjamin had worked in Boston. Many years after, it was 
returned to Boston, and may be seen to-day in the Old State 
House on State Street, which is within a few hundred feet of 
the spot on Queen (now Court) Street, where the Franklin 
Printing Office once stood. 



[page 13] 



FRANKLIN THE BUILDER OF FORTS 

WHEN the news of Braddock's humiliating defeat 
reached Philadelphia in July, 1755, Governor Morris 
entreated Colonel Dunbar, who was in command of 
what was left of the British regulars, to hold the enemy in 
check at the frontier until he could raise and send reinforce- 
ments of colonials. But Dunbar and his "seasoned troops" 
were headed for Philadelphia, "on the double quick," and 
with one accord they decided to keep right on. So to Phila- 
delphia they came, leaving the whole country at the mercy 
of the enemy. 

Now Governor Morris loved a dispute as a schoolboy 
loves a game of ball. He had promised Franklin to refrain 
from this little diversion while Governor. Nevertheless he was 
soon enjoying himself to the full in this particular regard. 
No more unfortunate juncture could have been found for 
indulging his weakness than just after Braddock's defeat. 
The whole colony was in a panic and needed careful, cool- 
headed leadership. Governor Morris, however, had deter- 
mined to stick to the letter of his instructions from the pro- 
prietaries in England whether he ruined the colony or not, 
and when the question arose as to who should pay the troops 
he proposed sending to the frontier, he said one thing and 
the Assembly said another. Spirited letters flew back and 
forth, those from the Assembly to the Governor being written 
by Franklin. Yet Franklin continued to be on such friendly 
terms with His Excellency as frequently to dine with him. 
PubUc-spirited citizens now and again proposed a compromise, 
but to no purpose. Time even was taken to send despatches 
to England regarding the deadlock. 

[page 15] 



FRANKLIN THE BUILDER OF FORTS 

In September and October, while the wranghng went 
hopelessly on, Indians were burning and killing in many parts 
of the colony; whole settlements were wiped out and families 
scalped within eighty miles of Philadelphia. At last, the 
proprietaries subscribed £5,000 toward the payment of the 
troops and a truce was patched up between the Governor and 
the Assembly, the much-needed money was forthcoming, and 
Franklin was appointed one of seven commissioners to have 
it in charge. Late in November, the Moravian settlements, 
in which Count Zinzendorf, the heroic missionary, had labored 
so earnestly, were attacked. One village, Giiadenhutten, was 
entirely burned and all the people but two killed. There was 
panic on all sides, the result largely of the obstinacy of Gov- 
ernor Mori-is. Yet at this juncture the Governor calmly asked 
Franklin if he would go to the Moravian settlements in the 
Lehigh Valley and protect the people; Franklin magnani- 
mously accepted the Governor's commission. This was one 
of the numberless times when, at a sacrifice of his own inter- 
ests, he willingly served his fellows. He nowhere shows 
himself a nobler man than when, about the middle of Decem- 
ber, he set out with his five hundred and sixty men. 

The account of the little expedition under General Frank- 
lin cannot be better told than in his own words, taken from 
his Autobiography. 

"While several companies in the city and country were 
forming, and learning their exercise, the Governor prevailed 
with me to take charge of our north-western frontier, which 
was infested by the enemy, and provide for the defence of 
the inhabitants by raising troops and building a line of forts. 
I undertook this military business, though I did not conceive 
myself well qualified for it. He gave me a commission with 
full powers, and a parcel of blank commissions for officers, to 
be given to whom I thought fit. I had but little diflSculty in 
raising men, having soon five hundred and sixty under my 

[page 16] 



FRANKLIN THE BUILDER OF FORTS 

command. My son, who had in the preceding war been an 
officer in the army raised against Canada, was my aide-de- 
camp, and of great use to me. The Indians had burned 
Guadenhut, a village settled by the Moravians, and mas- 
sacred the inhabitants; but the place was thought a good 
situation for one of the forts. 

"In order to march thither, I assembled the companies 
at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of these people. I was 
surprised to find it in so good a posture of defence; the de- 
struction of Guadenhut had made them apprehend danger. 
The principal buildings were defended by a stockade; they 
had purchased a quantity of arms and ammunition from New 
\ork, and had even placed quantities of small paving-stones 
between the windows of their high stone houses, for their 
women to throw down upon the heads of any Indians that 
should attempt to force into them. The armed brethren, too, 
kept watch and relieved each other on guard, as methodically 
as in any garrison town. . . . Common sense, aided by present 
danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical opinions. 

"It was the beginning of January when we set out upon 
this business of building forts. I sent one detachment towards 
the Minisink, with instructions to erect one for the security 
of that upper part of the country; and another to the lower 
part, with similar instructions; and I concluded to go myself 
with the rest of my force to Guadenhut, where a fort was 
thought more immediately necessary. The Moravians pro- 
cured me five wagons for our tools, stores, and baggage. . . . 

"We had not marched many miles, before it began to rain, 
and it continued raining all day; there were no habitations 
on the road to shelter us, till we arrived near night at the house 
of a German, where, and in his barn, we were all huddled to- 
gether, as wet as water could make us. It was well we were 
not attacked on our march, for our arms were of the most 
ordinary sort, and our men could not keep the locks of their 

[page 17] 



FRANKLIN THE BUILDER OF FORTS 

guns dry. The Indians are dexterous in contrivances for that 
purpose, which we had not. . . . 

"The next day being fair, we continued our march, and 
arrived at the desolated Guadenliut. There was a mill near, 
round which were left several pine boards, with which we 
soon hutted ourselves; an operation the more necessary at 
that inclement season, as we had no tents. Our first work was 
to bury more effectually the dead we found there, who had 
been half interred by the country people. 

"The next morning our fort was planned and marked out, 
the circumference measuring four hundred and fifty-five feet, 
which would require as many palisades to be made, one within 
another, of a foot diameter each. Our axes, of which we had 
seventy, were immediately set to work to cut down trees; 
and, our men being dexterous in the use of them, great des- 
patch was made. Seeing the trees fall so fast, I had the curi- 
osity to look at my watch when two men began to cut at a 
pine: in six minutes they had it upon the ground, and I found 
it of fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made three pali- 
sades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. While these 
were preparing, our other men dug a trench all round, of three 
feet deep, in which the palisades were to be planted; and, the 
bodies being taken off our wagons, and the fore and hind 
wheels separated, by taking out the pin which united the two 
parts of the perch, we had ten carriages, with two horses each, 
to bring the palisades from the woods to the spot. When they 
were set up, our carpenters built a platform of boards all round 
within, about six feet high, for the men to stand on when to 
fire through the loop-holes. We had one swivel-gun, which we 
mounted on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as fixed, to 
let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, that we had 
such pieces; and thus our fort, if that name may be given to 
so miserable a stockade, was finished in a week, though it 
rained so hard every other day, that the men could not work. 

[page 18] 



FRANKLIN THE BUILDER OF FORTS 

"This gave me occasion to observe, that, when men are 
employed, they are best contented; for on the days they 
worked they were good-natured and cheerful, and, with the 
consciousness of having done a good day's work, they spent 
the evening jolhly; but on our idle days they were mutinous 
and quarrelsome, finding fault with the pork, the bread, &c., 
and were continually in bad humor. . . . 

"This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a sufficient 
defence against Indians, who have no cannon. Finding our- 
selves now posted securely, and having a place to retreat to 
on occasion, we ventured out in parties to scour the adjacent 
country. We met with no Indians, but we found the places 
on the neighboring hills, where they had lain to watch our 
proceedings. . . . 

"We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, 
Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men did not 
generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When they 
enhsted they were promised, besides pay and provisions, a 
gill of rum a day, which was punctually served out to them, 
half in the morning and the other half in the evening, and I 
observed they were punctual in attending to receive it; upon 
which I said to Mr. Beatty, 'It is perhaps below the dignity 
of your profession to act as steward of the rum, but if you 
were only to distribute it out after prayers you would have 
them all about you.' He liked the thought, undertook the 
task, and, with the help of a few hands to measure out the 
liquor, executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers 
more generally and more punctually attended. So that I 
think this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by 
some military laws for non-attendance on divine service. 

"I had hardly finished this business and got my fort well 
stored with provisions when I received a letter from the 
Governor, acquainting me that he had called the Assembly, 
and wished my attendance there if the posture of affairs on 

[page 19] 



FRANKLIN THE BUILDER OF FORTS 

the frontiers was such that my remaining there was no longer 
necessary. My friends, too, of the Assembly pressing me by 
their letters to be, if possible, at the meeting, and my three 
intended forts being now completed and the inhabitants con- 
tented to remain on their farms under that protection, I 
resolved to return; the more willingly as a New England 
officer, Colonel Clapham, exi^erienced in Indian war, being on 
a visit to our establishment, consented to accept the command. 
I gave him a commission, and, parading the garrison, had it 
read before them, and introduced him to them as an officer 
who, from his skill in military affairs, was much more fit to 
command them than myself, and giving them a little exhorta- 
tion, took my leave. I was escorted as far as Bethlehem, 
where I rested a few days to recover from the fatigue I had 
undergone. The first night, lying in a good bed, I could hardly 
sleep, it was so different from my hard lodging on the floor 
of a hut at Guadenhut with onlv a blanket or two." 



Franklin, then a man of forty-nine, is shown in the third 
painting personally superintending the erection of one of three 
forts in the Lehigh Valley, above Bethlehem, made necessary 
by the incursions of hostile Indians. The weather was cold and 
rainy during the building of the forts; nevertheless, Indians 
sullenly watched the process from a safe distance. Franklin 
here, as elsewhere, got pleasure from the skilful manner in 
which his men worked, and carefully records the facts. He 
and all his men carried flint-lock guns, although they were 
usually too wet to be of any real service. 

]\Ir. Mills visited the site of Fort Allen, and made careful 
studies of the contour of the liills. He found notliing else as 
it had been in Franklin's time, and no remains of the fort 
which Franklin helped build, except the old well, locally 
known as Franklin's Well. The Fort Allen House, Weissport, 
now occupies the site of the old fort. 

[page 20 1 



FRANKLIN THE LIBRARIAN 

THE first library in America that could in any sense 
be called public was that formed of the books brought 
from England by John Harvard and left by him to 
the college which now bears his name. Tliis was in 1638. 
Just about a century later, in 1731, Franklin founded what 
he considered "the mother of all the North American sub- 
scription libraries," the Library Company of Philadelphia, of 
glorious memory. Unknown to Frankhn, a subscription library 
had been founded in Charleston, South Carohna, before this 
date, but it did not live and so far as is known influenced the 
founding of no others. During the years between the founding 
of the Library Company of Philadelphia and the breaking 
out of the Revolution, many other libraries of the same order 
sprang up, in Philadelphia first, and then in various other 
parts of the country. 

After the close of the war, the good work went on, ever 
broadening in character and spreading throughout the states 
of the Union — until in 1854, the great library movement 
bore fruit in the founding of the Boston Public Library, the 
first free public library in America. 

The hbrary of Harvard College perhaps influenced the 
founding elsewhere of a few other collections of books for the 
use of undergraduates. But it is to Franklin and the library 
which he founded that we must look for the germ of the 
modern library idea, that which came to a full fruition first 
in the Boston Public Library, the policy of which has been 
followed, in all its main features, by all the free public libraries 
of the English-speaking world. 

It is fortunate that we have a short account of the incep- 
tion and beginning of the Library Company of Philadelphia, 

[page il] 



FRANKLIX THE LIBRARLVN 

in the words of the founder himself. In his Autobiography, 
Franklin says: 

"At the time I estabUshed myself in Pennsylvania, there 
was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the 
southward of Boston. In New York and Philadelphia, the 
printers were indeed stationers; but they sold only paper, 
almanacs, ballads, and a few common school-books. Those 
who loved reading were obUged to send for their books from 
England; the members of the Junto had each a few. ^Ye 
had left the ale-house, where we first met, and hired a room to 
hold our club in. I proposed that we should all of us bring 
our books to that room, where they would not only be ready 
to consult in our conferences, but become a common benefit, 
each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wished to read 
at home. Tliis was accordingly done, and for some time 
contented us. 

"Finding the advantage of this httle collection, I proposed 
to render the benefit from the books more common, by com- 
mencing a public subscription library. I drew a sketch of 
the plan and rules that would be necessary [early in 1731] 
and got a skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, to put 
the whole in form of articles of agreement to be subscribed; 
by which each subscriber engaged to pay a certain sum down 
for the first purchase of the books, and an annual contribution 
for increasing them. So few were the readers at that time in 
Philadelphia, and the majority of us so poor, that I was not 
able without great industry to find more than fifty persons, 
mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this pur- 
pose forty shiUings each, and ten sliillings per annum. With 
this Httle fund we began. [The first meeting of the Library 
Company of Philadelphia was held Nov. 8, 1731.] The books 
were imported. [The following is a list of the books com- 
prised in the first importation. They arrived from England 
in October, 1732: 

[page 42] 



FRANKLIN THE LIBRARIAN 



Puffendorf's Introduc'n. 8 vo. 

Dr. Howel's History of ye World. 
3 vols. Fo. 

Rapin's History of England. 1'2 
vols. 8 vo. 

Salmon's Modern History. 

Vertot's Revolutions. 

Plutarch's Lives in small vol. 

Stanley's Lives of ye Philosophers. 

Annals of Tacitus by Gordon. 

Collection of Voyages. 6 vols. 

Atlas Geogra. 5 vols. 4 to. 

Gordon's Grammar. 

Brightland's English Grammar. 

Greenwood's " " 

Johnson's History of Animals. 

Architect by Andw. Palladio. 

Evelyn's Parallels of the ancient 
and modern Architecture. 

Bradley's Improvmt. of Hus- 
bandry, and his other Books of 
Gardening. 

Perkinson's Herbal. 
Helvicius's Chronology. 

Wood's Institutes. 

Dechall's Euclid. 

L'Hospital's Conic Sections. 4 to. 



Hayes upon Fluxions. 

Keil's Astronomical Lectures. 

Drake's Anatomy. 

Sidney on Government. 

Cato's Letters. 

Sieurs DuPort Royal moral essays. 

Crousay's Art of Thinking. 

Spectator. 

Guardian. 

Tatler. 

Puffendorf's Laws of Nature, &c. 

Addison's Works in 12 mo. 

Memorable Things of Socrates. 

Turkish Spy. 

Abridgmt. of Phil: Trans: 5 vols. 

4 to. 
Gravesend's Nat. Philos. 2 vols. 

8 vo. 
Boerhaave's Chemistry. 
The Compleat Tradesman. 
Bailey's Dictionary — the best. 
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. 
Bayle's Critical Dictionary. 
Dryden's Virgil. 
Ozanam's Course of Mathem. 5 

vols. 
Catalogues. 



A number of these books are still upon the shelves of 
the Library.] The Library was opened one day in the week 
for lending them to subscribers, on their promissory notes 
to pay double the value if not duly returned. The institution 
soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, 
and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by 
donations, reading became fashionable; and our people, hav- 
ing no public amusements to divert their attention from study, 
became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were 
observed by strangers to be better instructed and more in- 
telligent than people of the same rank generally are in other 
countries. . . . 

"This was the mother of all the North American sub- 
scription hbraries, now so numerous; it is become a great 

[page 23] 



FRAXEXIX THE LIBRARIAN 

thing itself, and continually goes on increasing. These Ubraries 
have improved the general conversation of the Americans, 
made the comznon tradesmen and farmers as intelhgent as 
most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have con- 
tributed in some degree to the stand so generally made 
throughout the colonies in defence of their privileges. . . . 

"This hbrary afforded me the means of improvement by 
constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each 
day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the learned 
education my father once intended for me. Reading was the 
only amusement I allowed myself. I spent no time in taverns, 
games, or frolics of any kind; and my industry in my business 
continued as indefatigable as it was necessary." 

In the Minute Books of the organization there is the fol- 
lowing entry dated December 11, 17o'i. "B. Franklin was 
asked what his charge was for printing a catalogue . . . for 
each subscriber; and his answer was that he designed them 
for presents, and would take no charge for them." 

Many of the original shares are still owned by descendants 
of those who first signed the Articles of Association. Franklin's 
share is now (1914) in the name of Thomas Hewson Bache, a 
descendant, the fourth owner since Franklin. 

The success and permanence of the Library Company of 
Philadelphia form but one of the many monuments to the good 
common sense of its founder. 



In the painting of the Library, Mr. Mills has represented 
Franklin as hbrarian, which position he held for three months 
during the second year of the Librarj' Company's existence. 
He is glancing up from the book he has been examining with 
a friend, to speak with two persons, apparently strangers, 
who have just entered the room. Franklin, although but 
twenty -sis years of age, is wearing a wig, as are aU the other 
[page a] 



FRANKLIN THE LIBRARIAN 

men in the room, young and old. At this time the custom 
among men of covering their own hair with wigs was well- 
nigh universal. 

The Library Company of Philadelphia as here shown occu- 
pies one small room in a private house, probably the same in 
which the Library opened a few months before, Mr. R. Grace's 
house in Jones Alley (also called Pewter Platter Alley) and 
now known as Church Street. Since 1790 the Library has 
owned its own building. Its two hundred and forty thousand 
volumes and its many invaluable historic relics are now 
housed in two large modern buildings. 



[page 2 5] 




IKA.NKi.i.N I HE EDITOR 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

WHEN Franklin, at sixteen years of age, put under 
the office door of the Courant a contribution signed 
"Silence Dogood," he began his editorial career. 
A few months afterward the 'prentice boy was acting editor, 
and soon actual, although irresponsible, editor of Boston's 
little hornet of a newspaper. He did his best to make its 
sting felt wherever it circulated, in which matter he followed 
the example and policy of his brother. But he did not long 
retain this rather anomalous position, and it was not until six 
eventful years had passed that he earnestly began to edit a 
paper for the pubhc good. By this time he had learned that, 
to use irony and satire effectively, the sting should usually be 
extracted. 

The manner in which The Pennsylvania Gazette came into 
Franklin's possession is interesting. He had resolved to start 
a newspaper in opposition to Bradford's Mercury, and inno- 
cently enough mentioned the fact to one of the workmen of 
another printing office. The man told his master, Samuel 
Keimer, with whom Franklin himself had worked. Keimer 
thought the idea a good one, and, to Franklin's disgust, 
promptly started one of his own. In doing this, however, he 
reckoned without his host. Franklin in that cool, almost 
cruel, way of his, looked over the ground and decided to use 
the Mercury to kill the Gazette. He forthwith began a series 
of humorous communications, judiciously signed "The Busy 
Body," which Bradford willingly accepted and published in 
the Mercury. They attracted wide attention. By this means 
the subscription list of the Mercury ran up, while there was a 
corresponding lowering of that of the Gazette. Keimer tried 

[page i7 ] 



FRAXKLIX THE EDITOR 

to reply in kind, but he was no match for FrankUn. and after 
being burlesqued unmercifully for a few months he gave it 
up and left the city. Franklin then bought the Gazette. With 
X"o. 40 (17':29\ it5 new career began under a master hand that 
eventually made it the best and most powerful newspaper in 
the colonies. He carefully excluded all personal abuse and 
CAery thing of a controversial nature; he introduced much 
humor: broad as it sometimes was. it never had in it that 
other objectionable quality, a sharp sting. So with the hoax 
idea, of which he made constant use. everybody could laugh 
and no one felt hurt. In fact. Franklin made his paper stand 
for good citizenship and brotherly love. 

The Gazette was a single sheet, which, when folded, mea^s- 
xu^ but twelve by eighteen inches, and it was issued only 
twice a week, but it contained "the freshest ad^"ices. foreign 
and domestic." articles taken from the EngUsh press, anec- 
dotes, and advertisements galore. ^Tien there was a shortage 
in a column, Franklin promptly set up a Uttle squib, com- 
posing it as he handled the type. If news was short, or there 
was no European article suitable for use. the versatile editor 
wrote a long essay in his striking st^'le, modelled after the 
diction of Cotton Mather or the Spectator essayists. This 
was a sort of editorial work not known now, but it had its 
compensations. Perhaps no contributor or editor ever had 
so httle trouble in getting his articles into print, so httle an- 
noyance in ha%"ing his contributions cut, so httle worry from 
bad proof-reading. Franklin knew exactly what was wanted, 
and the amount was measured by the hole in the form, so 
that not a word too much was set up. This "padding." usu- 
ally the poorest part of a paper, was in the Gazette the best. 
It was never reA"ised. or even read in proof, but it was found 
to have a i>eculiar value to its readers, and it made Franklin's 
paper famous. Talk of thrift I Was there ever a better example 
of it.- 

[PAGS 28] 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

And this was not all. Franklin believed in advertising; 
the Gazette was the best advertising medium in the country; 
he had a thrifty wife who could tend a little shop while he 
edited his paper. These fortunate circumstances were made 
to work one into the other. The little shop at the "new 
printing office near the market" was stocked with things to 
be advertised: books, stationery, soap, lampblack, ink, rags, 
feathers, coffee, and sometimes even sack. Franklin's editing, 
then, made his paper sell; because his paper sold, the adver- 
tisements were read; because the advertisements were read, 
his little shop throve. 

Three years after Franklin had acquired the Gazette he 
began to issue an Almanac, which stands to-day as the most 
famous and valuable of this class of publications. In his 
Autobiography Franklin says: 

"In 1732 I first published my Almanac, under the name of 
Richard Saunders; it was continued by me about twenty- 
five years, and commonly called Poor Richard's Ahnanac. I 
endeavoured to make it both entertaining and useful, and it 
accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reaped con- 
siderable profit from it; vending annually near ten thousand. 
And observing that it was generally read, scarce any neigh- 
borhood in the province being without it, I considered it as a 
proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common 
people, who bought scarcely any other books. I therefore 
filled all the little spaces, that occurred between the remark- 
able days in the Calendar, with proverbial sentences, chiefly 
such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of 
procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more 
difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as, to use 
here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to 
stand upright. 

"I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of 
communicating instruction, and in that view frequently 

[page 29] 



FRAXKLIX THE EDITOR 

reprinted in it extracts from the Sptcfator. and other moral 
writer;;; and sometimes pubhshed little pieces of my own. 
which had been lirst composed for reading in our Jimto. Of 
these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to prove that, whatever 
might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not 
properly be called a man of sense; and a discourse on self- 
denial, showing that virtue was not secure, till its practice 
became a habihuh-, and was free from the opposition of con- 
trary inchnations. These may be found in the papers about 
the beginning of 1735. 

"In the conduct of my newspaper. I carefully excluded all 
libelling and personal abuse, wliich is of late years become 
so disgraceful to our country. \Mienever I was soUcited to 
insert anything of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they 
generally did. the liberty of the press; and that a newspaper 
was like a stage-coach, in which any one who would pay had 
a right to a place; my answer was. that I would print the 
piece separately if desired, and the author might have as many 
copies as he pleased to distribute himseK; but that I would 
not take upon m.e to spread his detraction; and that, having 
contracted with my subscribers to furnish them with what 
might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fiU their 
papers with p^i^"ate altercation, in which they had no con- 
cern, without doing them manifest injustice. X'ow, man^- of 
our printers make no scruple of gratifying the mahce of indi- 
viduals, by false accusations of the fairest characters among 
ourselves, augmenting animosity even to the producing of 
duels; and are. moreover, so indiscreet as to print scurrilous 
reflections on the government of neighboring states, and even 
on the conduct of our best national aUies. which may be 
attendevi with the most pernicious consequences. These things 
I mention as a caution to young printers, and that they may 
be encouraged not to pollute their press^es. and disgrace their 
profession by such infamous practices, but refuse steadily; as 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

they may see by my example, that such a course of conduct 
will not on the whole lie injurious to their interests." 

As with the startiiif>' of his newspaper, so also, when Frank- 
lin began his almanac, there was a rival to be subdued. He 
took an extraordinary, though not original, method of divert- 
ing attention from the old to the new almanac. The new one 
was supposed to be humorous, although one man must have 
found it anything but that. Franklin says in the preface tliat 
long ago he would have given the world an almanac, but for 
the fear of injuring his friend(?) and fellow-student. Titan 
Leeds. 

"But this obstacle (I am far from si)eaking it with pleas- 
lu'e) is soon to be removed, since inexorable death, who was 
never known to respect merit, has already prepared the mortal 
dart, the fatal sister has already extended her destroying 
shears, and that ingenious man nuist soon be taken from us. 
He dies, by my calculation, made at his retiuest, on October 
17, 1733, 3 ho., 29 m., P. M., at the very instant of the d of 
o and ^ . By his own calculation, he will survive till the 
2()th of the same month. This small difference between us, 
we have disputed whenever w'e have met these nine years 
past; Init at length he is incUned to agree with my judgment. 
Which of us is most exact, a little time will now determine. 
As, therefore, these Provinces may not longer expect to see 
any of his performances after this year, I think myself free 
to take up the task." 

Poor Richard's Almanac for 1733 succeeded beyond his 
expectations. In the preface for the issue of 1734 he regrets 
that he was not able to be present at tlve closing scene of 
Leeds's life and so cannot positively say whether the man 
was dead or not. 

"There is, however, (and I cannot speak it without sorrow), 
there is the strongest probability that my dear friend is no 
more; for there appears in his name, as I am assured, an 

[page 31] 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

Almanack for the year 1734, in which I am treated in a very 
gross and unhandsome manner; in which I am called a false 
predicter, an ignorant, a conceited scribbler, a fool, and a 
lyar. Mr. Leeds was too well bred to use any man so in- 
decently and so scurrilously, and, moreover, his esteem and 
affection for me was extraordinary; so that it is to be feared 
that pamphlet may be only a contrivance of somebody or 
other, who hopes, perhaps, to sell two or three years' Alman- 
acks still, by the sole force and virtue of Mr. Leeds's name." 

Thus the controversy went on for several years, greatly to 
the joy of the populace and to the mortification of poor 
Titan Leeds. 

The Almanac was issued for more than twenty years with 
an annual sale of ten thousand copies. The last one for which 
Franklin wrote the copy was that of 1758. The sayings of 
"Poor Richai'd" are too well known to require mention here. 
They worked themselves into the language of the day, and 
many of them have come down to us. As Rembrandt and 
Leonardo da Vinci did not hesitate to borrow an idea from a 
greater or lesser artist, sometimes with and sometimes, alas, 
without a "by your leave. Sir," so Franklin looked upon all 
literature as fair game for "Poor Richard" and for the 
editor of The Pennsylvania Gazette. It troubled his thrifty 
soul to discover a fine truth buried between antique covers, 
or rendered non-eft'ective by stilted phrase. He could not let 
it lie dormant; he garbed it in his own quaint way and sent 
it forth anew as on the wings of the wind. So successful 
was he in doing this that while his version lives the original 
is usually forgotten. 

The Gazette and the Almanac being increasingly satisfac- 
tory to editor and reader alike, Franklin now projected an- 
other publication. This was to be a monthly magazine. As 
in the starting of his newspaper he blundered in mentioning 
his plan prematurely, so, when the new periodical lay plain 

Ipage 32] 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

in his mind, he repeated the mistake. A rival pubhsher 
learned of it, seized the idea, printed a prospectus and issued, 
February 13, 1741, the first number of The American Maga- 
zine, just three days before Franklin's The General Magazine 
appeared. These were the first monthly periodicals to appear 
in America. At the end of six months both were dead and 
buried. The first departed this life aged three months, leaving 
a publisher to mourn, not over its loss, but over that of a much- 
depleted bank account. The second gasped out its life at six 
months, leaving Franklin a wiser but sadder man. It was one 
of his few failures. 

Franklin worked as an editor almost forty years. Besides 
the newspaper and the Almanac, he wrote many pamphlets 
upon questions of the day. This was the trouble with Frank- 
lin in literature. He wrote too much upon passing events. 
He was too intensely practical. Deep imagination, real spirit- 
uality and idealism were lacking in the man, and the lack 
showed in his work. John Keats, who wrote always from the 
pure delight of writing, speaks of Franklin as "a philosophical 
Quaker full of mean and thrifty maxims." But Keats did not 
understand Franklin any more than Franklin would have 
understood Keats. They were in literature the very antithesis 
of each other. 

Franklin used his pen effectively always; his pungent, often 
homely English never missed its mark. The tasks he had set 
himself early in life, translating Latin, paraphrasing the Bible, 
studying Addison and Swift, rewriting whole essays from 
memory, guided only by a few headings, rendering prose into 
verse and verse into prose, all had their effect in perfecting 
one of the masters of English prose. His success in several 
of his walks of life was due to his ability to write clearly and 
forcefully. 

Paul Leicester Ford, in his " Many-Sided Franklin," sums 
up the literary side of him thus: 

[page 33j 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

"This self-educated boy and busy, practical man gave to 
American literature the most popular autobiography ever 
written, a series of political and social satires that can bear 
comparison with those of the greatest satirists, a private 
correspondence as readable as Walpole's or Chesterfield's; 
and the collection of Poor Richard's epigrams has been oftener 
printed and translated than any other production of an 
American pen. 

*If you would not be forgotten, 
As soon as you are dead and rotten, 
Either write things worth reading, 
Or do things worth the writing,' 

advised the Almanac-maker, and his original did both." 



The portrait used for Franklin in his editorial sanctum 
was influenced largely by the one painted by Franklin's friend 
Benjamin Wilson in 1759. It is not very familiar to Americans 
because it was carried to England by Major-General Charles 
Gray when his troops evacuated Philadelphia in 1778. Gray's 
great-grandson, the fourth Earl Gray, when Governor-General 
of Canada, in 1906 returned it to America. Matthew Pratt's 
portrait of Frankhn painted in 1756 also influenced Mr. INIills 
in the Franklin he has here given us. 

On top of the bookshelves is the famous httle green model 
of the Franklin stove, which is now in possession of the 
American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. On the right 
of it is an electric dynamo, now in the custody of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania. Leyden jars, such as Franklin used in 
his experiments, are also on the bookshelves. Pinned on the 
wall between window and stove model is the cover of Frank- 
lin's ill-starred magazine. The quill pens, sand-box, candle- 
sticks, and all the other accessories of the writing-table are 

[page 31] 



FRANKLIN THE EDITOR 

painted from the actual objects which date back to Franklin's 
day. In fact, the whole room, with its stiff furniture, its scien- 
tific models, its air of utility throughout, is the only sort of 
room in which we can imagine Frankhn at home. This win- 
dow, for instance, innocent of shade or curtain, must have 
been exactly his idea of a window, something to let in light 
and sunshine, in which he beheved as firmly as he disbelieved 
in unnecessary luxury and things artistic, especially if such 
things obstructed his view of the street and wharves and the 
busy world about him. 



[page 35] 



FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 

IN Franklin's day men sometimes travelled about from 
town to towTi, especially in Europe, "selling shocks" at 
so much apiece. The word electricity was becoming very 
interesting to all the world, although not even the most 
learned "philosophers" suspected the smallest part of what it 
would later mean to mankind. In 1746 a Dr. Spencer came to 
Boston, lecturing on this subject, and FrankUn happened to 
hear him. Frankhn had always had an investigating turn of 
mind, as was shown, for instance, by the questions brought up 
for discussion at his club, the Junto: "How may the phenom- 
ena of vapors be explained? " " "Why does the flame of a candle 
tend upwards in a spire?" and so on. Dr. Spencer's clumsily 
performed experiments interested Frankhn so much that he 
bought the apparatus and went to work with it. 

The following year Mr. P. CoUinson of London sent the 
Library Company of Philadelphia a glass tube such as was 
being used in generating electricity. It was about two and a 
half feet long, and was intended to be rubbed with silk or 
buckskin, and meanwhile to be held in contact with the ob- 
ject which was to be charged. Frankhn and several friends 
spent all their leisure time experimenting with it and similar 
contrivances. His letters to CoUinson concerning their work, 
though at first ridiculed by the Royal Society, were eventually 
pubhshed (1751) under the title: "New Ex-periments and 
Observations in Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America." 
His discoveries met with recognition first in Europe. He gained 
a wide reputation as a philosopher, as the exi^ression went at 
that period — we should say "physicist" or "scientist"; 
"natural philosophy" is a term seldom heard now. 

[page 37] 



FRAXKLIX THE SCIENTIST 

The electrical studies of the day were conducted with great 
Ughtheartedness. "VMien. in an attempt to kill a turkey by 
means of an electric shock. Franklin made "so notorious a 
blunder'' as to prostrate himself unconscious on the floor, he 
said he was like an Irishman who wished to steal gunpowder 
but made the hole in the cask with a red-hot pn^ker. The 
investigations were often as much like play as serious research. 
Franklin writer a friend, for instance, about a pleasxire party 
on the banks of the Schuylkill. 

"Spirits, at the same time, are to be fired by a spark 
sent from side to side through the river, without any other 
conductor than the water, an experiment which we sometime 
since performed, to the amazement of many. A turkey is to 
be killed for our dinner by the ehctric shock, and roasted by 
the dtdric jack before a fire kindled by the eh'ctrical C'Otth\ 
when the healths of all the famous electricians in England, 
Hc'.Lvid, Franct and Girmanij are to be drank in electrijit-d 
bumpers under the discliara:e of guns from the electrical 
batit-ry." 

This playfulness did not prevent real advance in knowl- 
edge. Franklin discarded the accepted "two-fluid theory," 
and worked out the "one-fluid theory." Early in his studies 
he began speculating on the resemblance between Hghtning 
and electricity. He surmised the two might be alike in being 
attracted by points, and suggested a method of ascertaining 
|>ositively that they were the same in this i>articular. 

"T would propose an experiment, to be tried where it may 
be done conveniently. On the top of some high tower or 
steeple place a kind of sentry- box big enough to contain a 
man and an electrical stand. Frv)m the middle of the stand 
let an iron rod rise, and pass bending out of the door and 
then upright twenty or thirty feet, pointed very sharp at 
the end. If the electrical stand be kept dean and dry. a man 
standing on it when such clouds are i>assrng low might be 

l?A.£ s S S J 



FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 

electrified and afford sparks, the rod drawing fire to him 
from a cloud." 

This experiment was successfully tried in France, where tall 
iron bars were used instead of steeples, and also in England. 
In Russia a professor brought so much electricity from the 
clouds as to be struck dead. In 1752 Franklin wrote Collinson 
that he had heard of the successful experimenting in France, 
and mentioned that he had devisedj^a way of performing the 
same experiment without a high iron rod or a steeple. This 
was the feat with the kite, about which all the world has been 
more excited than Franklin himself. He gave a minute de- 
scription of the experiment, but he never wrote any narrative 
of his own performing of it. The accounts given of his aston- 
ishment, anxiety and exultation had little or no foundation. 
He could not have been carried away with emotion, as he was 
simply confirming what he had already reasoned out. The 
most he says on this point in the Autobiography is: 

"I will not swell this narrative with an account of that 
capital experiment [in Paris] nor of the infinite pleasure I 
received in the success of a similar one I made soon after 
with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the 
histories of electricity." 

Sometime before this he had (1749) planned the lightning- 
rod. 

"May not the knowledge of this power of points be of 
use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, &c 
from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix, on the 
highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made 
sharp as a needle, and gilt to prevent rusting, and from the 
foot of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into 
the ground, or down one of the shrouds of a ship, and down 
her side till it reaches the water." 

It was several months after his kite experiment before 
Franklin wrote Collinson about it. His directions are explicit: 

[page 39] 



FIL\XXLIX THE SCIEXTIST 

"Make a small cross of t^wo light strips of cedar, the 
arms so long as to reach to the four corners of a large thin 
silk handkerchief when extended: tie the corners of the 
handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you have 
the body of a kite; which being properly accommodated 
with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like those 
made of paper: but this being of silk is fitter to bear the 
wet and wind of a thunder gust without tearing. To the 
top of the upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very 
sharp pointed wire, rising a foot or more above the wood. 
To the end of the twine, next the hand, is to be tied a silk 
ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key may be 
fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thundergust 
appears to be coming on, and the person who holds the 
strins must stand within a door or window, or under some 
cover, so that the silk ribbon may not be wet; and care must 
be taken that the twine does not touch the frame of the door 
or window. As soon as any of the thunder clouds come over 
the kite, the pointed wire wiU draw the electric fii^ from 
them, and the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, and 
the loose filaments of the twine, wiU stand out every way, 
and be attracted by an approaching finger. And when the 
rain has wetted the kite and twine, so that it can conduct 
the electric fire freely, you wUl fijid it stream out plentifully 
from the key on the approach of your knuckle. At this key 
the phial may be charged: and from electric fire thus 
obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric 
experiments be performed, which are usually done by the 
help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the same- 
ness of the electric matter with that of lightning completely 
demonstrat ed. " 

This experiment and the invention of the lightning-rod 
would have made Franklin's name well known throughout 
the world, if he had never done anything else noteworthy. 



FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 

Kant called him a modern Prometheus, as he had brought 
down the fire from heaven. The feeling of France was expressed 
by a famous line which was often (luoted and appeared again 
and again on the symbolic engravings wherein Franklin figured 
with goddesses and nymphs: 

"Eripuit caclo fidmen scptrumquc iyrannis." 
("He has snatched the lightning from the sky and the sceptre 
from tyrants.'") England was less admiring. There an anuis- 
ing argument sprang up over the comparative efficacy of blunt 
and sharp ends to the lightning-rods. George III, who in 
general had little cause to like Franklin's ideas, ordered 
blunt-ended ones for Kew Palace. An epigram of the time 
says : 

"TMiile you, great George, for safety hunt, 

And sharp conductors change for blunt, 
The nation's out of joint. 

Franklin a wiser course pursues. 

And all your thunder fearless views. 
By keeping to the point." 

The inventor himself took no part in the discussion. "If I 
had a wish about it," he said, "it would be that he had re- 
jected them altogether as ineft'ectual. For it is only since he 
thought himself and family safe from the thunder of Heaven 
that he dared to use liis own thunder in destroying his inno- 
cent subjects." In some New England circles, the lightning- 
rod gave cause for sober-minded thought. It was feared 
that the more points of iron there are on the earth's surface, 
the more the earth must become charged with electricity and 
the more earthquakes there must be. It seemed presuming for 
man to attempt "to control the artillery of heaven." Some 
said that "as Ughtning is one of the means of punishing the 
sins of mankind, and of warning them from the commission 
of sin, it is impious to prevent its full execution." 

[page 4 1] 



FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 

Electricity was by no means the only scientific subject 
which Franklin investigated. He observed the course of 
storms over North America, and discovered that the north- 
east storms of the Atlantic coast came from the southwest. 
The Gulf Stream he studied many years. Even on his last 
trip home across the x\tlantic, when disabled by illness, he 
tested the temperature of the water repeatedly with his 
thermometer. He was the first to bring the current promi- 
nently to notice, to cause a chart of it to be published, and to 
introduce the use of the thermometer in navigation. 

He made a special study of chimneys and drafts. During 
his I'esidence in England many a notable man was glad of 
the services of the American "chimney doctor," as his enemies 
sometimes liked to call him. He invented the "Pennsylvania 
fireplace," an ingenious form of "open fireplace stove." 
Similar stoves are still called by his name. He also built a 
stove which consumed its own smoke. 

Franklin was constantly inventing something: devices for 
the better handling of ships, better patterns for sails, new 
methods of propelling boats, a long arm to hand down books 
from the upper shelves of his library, a musical instrument 
comprised of glasses specially shaped and tuned, double spec- 
tacles, the upper half of the lens being curved for distant 
vision and the lower half for nearer vision. He advised that 
shipwrecked sailors keep their clothing saturated with salt 
water, to allay thirst; an idea which is said to have been 
successfully put in practice. His mind was always alert and 
tireless. If it was a sunny day in winter, he enjoyed the snow 
the more for laying on it squares of different colored cloth, 
so as to observe under which color the snow melted most 
rapidly. If he went for a country walk, he would carry a 
little oil in the upper hollow joint of his bamboo cane and 
test with it the action of oil on the ponds and pools along 
the road. 
[page a] 



FRANEXIN THE SCIENTIST 

There was no limit to the variety of subjects which he 
carefully studied. The following list is by no means complete, 
but its heterogeneousness is enlightening. He studied: 

The eflfect of the depth of The rainfall, 

water on the speed of ships. Earthquakes. 

Phosphorescence of sea water. Whirlwinds and waterspouts. 

The aurora borealis. The cause of the saltness of 
National wealth. the sea. 

Peace and war. Free trade. 

Sun spots. Slave trade. 

Ventilation. Shooting stars. 
Medicine. 

Over all enterprises like the construction of steamboats, 
air-pumps and balloons, he was very enthusiastic. 

One memorable result of Franklin's scientific interests was 
the establishment of a society to further the advance of 
science, the American Philosophical Society. The members 
at first seemed to him "very idle gentlemen," who would 
"take no pains." Later the organization became zealous in 
its work. In his later years, Franklin built a wing on his house, 
the first floor of which was for the use of this society. In this 
building certain principles of fire-proof construction were 
introduced by Franklin which have since been very generally 
adopted. 

It should be remembered to the "philosopher's" credit 
that he was in his scientific work unselfish. He disbelieved in 
taking out patents, as his discoveries were for the use of the 
world. Even when a Philadelphia ironmonger put a slight 
addition on his Pennsylvania fireplace, patented it, and 
coined money out of it, Franldin's opinion in this regard 
seems not to have wavered. He was merely a seeker after 
truth. "I find," said he, "a frank acknowledgement of one's 
ignorance is not only the easiest way to get rid of a difiiculty, 

[page 43] 



FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 

but the likeliest way to obtain information, and therefore I 
practise it; and I think it honest policy." Controversies to 
protect his own reputation as discoverer and inventor had 
no attractions for him. 

"I have never entered into any controversy in defense of 
my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance 
in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will sup- 
port them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. 
Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's 
quiet." 

Wlien Abbe Nollet denied the verity of Franklin's electrical 
experiments, "I concluded," he says, "to let my papers shift 
for themselves; believing it was better to spend what time I 
could spare from public business in making new experiments, 
than in disputing about those already made." 

His purpose in all research was practical. He might be ever 
so immersed in speculation, but he sooner or later applied 
the touchstone: how much will this help mankind.'* He says: 
"What signifies philosophy that does not apply to some use?" 
After all, he considers it of little importance to know "the 
manner in which nature executed her laws; 'tis enough to know 
the laws themselves. 'Tis of real use to know that china left 
in the air will fall and break; but how it comes to fall and 
why it breaks are matters of speculation. 'Tis a pleasure 
indeed to know them, but we can preserve our china without 
it." 

Biographers have sometimes wondered that so few of 
Franklin's achievements are to-day well known. "When the 
multiplicity of subjects which he studied is considered, and 
the large variety of other kinds of important work which he 
did, this question calls for no answer. 

Franklin made suggestions which were far in advance of 
the scientific thought of his time; for instance, his idea of a 
possible medium pervading all space, by means of which the 

[page 44] 



FRANKLIN THE SCIENTIST 

attractions and repulsions of bodies distant from one another 
maj' take place, and his idea that the phenomena of optics 
could be explained by means of the vibration of an elastic 
ether. In general, Franklin accomplished great things as a 
collector who knew admirably well how to make scientific 
knowledge available and intelligible to people. Even to-day 
his clear-cut explanations of puzzling, every-day questions, 
not always answered in books, are valuable. His treatises 
on smoke and chimneys are really excellent reading. "Modern 
students," says one biographer, "would have an easier time 
if Franklin were still here to write their text-books." As a 
matter of fact, among really great scientists Franklin does 
not stand in the forefront, but rather in the second rank. 
If he had not been prevented by his long public service from 
giving to scientific research the time he would gladly have 
devoted to it, the foremost scientists would undoubtedly have 
had need to look to their laurels. 



The painting of Franklin flying his kite in a thunder 
storm is purely imaginary, but follows facts as closely as 
possible. In this particular it presents a refreshing contrast 
to the innumerable fanciful pictures illustrating this incident 
which for generations inevitably appeared in every school- 
book. Franklin's son William was at this time at least nine- 
teen, and, according to his father, "something of a dandy." 

They went out to the outskirts of Philadelphia to the 
neighborhood, as nearly as can be ascertained, of what is now 
Seventeenth and Callowhill Streets. There were no spires in 
Philadelphia at that time, had Franklin preferred to try his 
ex-periment in a high place as he suggested in his letters to 
Collinson. The two took refuge from the rain in an old cow- 
shed. Frankhn attached a silk cord or ribbon to the kite 
string, which, being a non-conductor, made a convenient thing 

[page 45] 



FKAVkTTX THE SCIENTIST 

to hold to. He brought the string in through the shed door, 
and attached it to the Leyden jar. which is to be seen on a 
board at the left of the picture. They not only succeeded in 
drawing sparks from the string by touching their knuckles 
to a key which they fa5tened to it, " / ^hey succeeded in 
charging the Leyden jar also. 

The kite experiment took place in lTo-2, when Franklin 
was fortv-six vears old. 



.SS 4f 




-f. 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT: ABROAD 

A MASTER examined by a parcel of school-boys," 
is the way Burke aptly described Frankhn's ordeal 
in Parliament, February, 1766. This was at the 
time of the Stamp Act agitation. The act, which consisted of 
fifty-five articles, and imposed taxes on fifty-four classes of 
objects, had been proposed by George Grenville, and had 
been passed the year before. 

Previous to this time, when England desired to raise money 
in America, it had been customary for the king to send circu- 
lar letters to the AssembHes of the colonies, setting forth the 
need of assistance. Each Assembly appropriated what it con- 
sidered the colony could afford. Grenville's idea that Parha- 
ment should tax the colonies, although the latter could send 
no representatives to Parhament, was an unhappy one. 
Frankhn was in England as agent of the Pennsylvania colony 
at the time of the passage of the Stamp Act, and did all in 
his power to prevent it. But Parhament preferred compul- 
sion to the "golden bridge" of persuasion. 

"We might as well have hindered the sun's setting, . . ." 
Franklin wrote in a letter, "but since it is down, my friend, 
and it may be long before it rises again, let us make as good a 
night of it as we can. We may still light candles." 

Franklin's enemies accused him of traitorously favoring 
the act, but letters and documents show conclusively that 
this was false. It is true that, naturally enough, he did not 
foresee the stormy objections which would be made in America 
to the stamps. He hoped that the clamor of merchants and 
manufacturers in England would accomplish even more than 

[ P A G> 4 7 ] 



FRAXKLDs' THE PATRIOT 

it did toward the repeal of the act. He considered that a 
corrupt Parhatuent was to blame, and he hoped that no out- 
break of hostihties between the two countries would prove 
necessary. But he was con\'inced that Britain was in the 
wrong, that the Stamp Act was the "mother of mischiefs," 
and he declared that it was "supposed to be an undoubted 
right of Enghshnien not to be taxed but by their own consent 
given through their representatives." The position he occu- 
pied made liim unpopular: EngUshmen thought him too 
much of an American, and Americans thought him too much 
of an Englishman. Furthermore, his situation was difficult 
because it was hard, slow work for people on either side of 
the Atlantic to obtain full and accurate information as to the 
real state of public opinion on the other side of the ocean. 

The Grenville ministry gave place to the Marquis of 
Rockingham's ministry, which was friendly to America. 
Edmund Burke was Rockingham's private sec^etar^^ (A Hst 
of this ministry- may be found at the end of the notes on the 
painting of Frankhn before the House of Commons.) 

The new Parhament held a six weeks' investigation of 
American affairs. "Ever\" denomination of men" attended 
at the bar to give testimony. "Such e\-idence was never laid 
before Parhament," said Burke. The chief witness, in fact, 
one of the most remarkable witnesses the world has ever 
seen, was Dr. Franklin. Probably no one man before ever 
gave orally so complete a setting-forth of the condition of an 
entire country. 

Although many questions were asked by sympathizers, 
expressly to give him an opportunity to speak on certain 
points, a large number were deliberately and skilfully aimed 
to entangle him. He was equally prepared for both. Some 
of his questioners were: Mr. Hewett (Coventry \ Mr. Huske, 
;Mr. George Gren\-ille, 'Sir. Xugent. Lord Clare. Mr. Grey 
Cooper, Mr. Prescot, Sir George Sa%-ile, Mr. A. Bacon, 

[page 48] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

Mr. Charles Townshend, Mr. Burke, the Marquis of Granby, 
Lord North, Mr. Thurlowe, Mr. Conway, Mr. Welbore Ellis. 

The report of Franklin's examination deserves to be widely 
known. One main argument which Franklin particularly 
emphasized in his replies was that the colonies were even then 
burdened with debts and taxes incurred in helping to pay 
for a war that had not been really necessary for their own 
welfare. Moreover, they had contributed men as well as 
money for the assistance of the mother-country. 

Several of his answers pointed to the impossibility of 
enforcing the tax. The frontier counties were too poor and 
too remote. A man who needed a stamp for a deed or a re- 
ceipt might have to make a journey costing "three or four 
pounds that the crown might get sixpence." 

GrenviUe and his party argued that the colonies did not 
pay their share. Franklin showed that in response to letters 
sent the Assemblies they had contributed so much more than 
their share that Parliament, in accordance with the king's 
suggestion, had been in the habit of refunding a sum annually. 
This, however, did not begin to be adequate reimbursement. 

"Is it not necessary to send troops to America to defend 
the Americans against the Indians?" he was asked. "No," 
replied Franklin. "... They defended themselves when 
they were but a handful, and the Indians much more numer- 
ous." 

Before 1763, Franldin assured his questioners that the 
colonies had been governed "at the expense only of a little 
pen, ink, and paper; they were led by a thread." They had 
considered Parliament as the bulwark of their liberties; now 
their temper was very much altered. 

The Tory members professed not to understand why the 
colonists objected to the Stamp Act, though they willingly 
let Parliament levy duties regulating commerce. He explained 
that if unequal burdens were laid on trade, merchants put 

[page 49] 



-rp.A Virr.lX THE PaTEIOT 

additicma^ pnrss no: titeir oti»^; Init pp-opk v'sre not nnliff^i 
^£ buy tbe n -~ ' -":~isf s: thf azrvanrsc pnrs~ imiss^ tnev 
-vrsiiec. Or ^ " iiauc, imdHr Tbf STKntr Arc tbf Muar- 

i5i5 *'ii£"VT nr pflraiQS?T^_ make nr f^naTU^ a: prrrosriy "wrri 
eari rvther. nertiisr pcrrii^ffi- nor ^thuI nnr Tsepvsr Q?ii"S; 
TTf shaT neither tt»« — r- nor Tnafrf our "w-r* es^ "v^r psy 

soiri anc sairi sums; anc tins i is inis:-- ^ .. esinr: our 
money irarL cs^ or rxnr cs "r«" ibe wmseniienes vd Tsmsmg 
tr pay it-" 

Tiie point 'vr^^ thai "a rachi tt lay mtema- "rase? ^^ras 
never 5ann>rsf£ tr i»r ir Parhamenx. as "wr a:?^ noi Tepresenxec 
tiere-" 

Xaisr it lite esamioaxinn. Vrt ?T ihf Stamr Ae met per- 
ssttsd it sssrnr ht' dstinptiar tver^^est snema. arnr nnsniB- 
tases^ T S«T>Vrn- hinT?£ that perhais^ t: - asr ""STiiiid 

rome ai jensri ir -^'mnV -merf tvs? nr — . - anc •w-oiiic 

obisc: ir both' 

T ra-nVm- poinTsn ont that the tax vonic be especial'y 
TsssDTsd by Inf porc^r ciaste? n: peopi?-. *'T^ irrsaissi pan 
n: the money mcs: arsf tram iav-^airi? ior r^-M^rsry of oebiS 
and bf paid by the io^rsr sor: o: peank- "wiir "R^ere 7z»r poor 
■ssjsiiy Tr pay tneir nebisi. Ih 5^. theranrE. a n^"^ tas; or tiie 
nwc. *rnr a i^t iroor tn^n- ior pernr pMirT 

Ahhouo: the lax aionid be ?emired. Eisnkiir desiiarr^ 
tha: "me '• ' 'v :-^- "^ouid snl not Tsy ii- 

tirsr^- . -re ar mrsresinii: arrsunri tt' trn:' 3?^ ±~Tan£.- 

nr in:. T5if Amsncais. he said, "wrere axrsaoy cnesrhiljy pey- 
in£ posiase- ^vrhiii "viras £ tes Ihn "^ TR-mrlrr aefmed pcsciaffe 

as a ": - :?.ory "aETrmen": for service^ rsnaerec. a mar 

pouid - . . . ; ::2r by messncsr if iie prsiHrrsa. *\Dr noi 
:^ie ATT> ° -»r^TSL " tirarT-ilte Tesssrsd. "eoasider the Tssruia- 
■aons of the pos:— omce. by tne ac: of Jas: year, as a Tasr' 
Se shouid no" ha'^ crossed s^orffi^ vitr the A" 
pogmnasisr-senera^ !I^ siC be merfaonec Tr*. ^ — ^. 



FR.\XKLIX THE PATRIOT 

reduced the rate of jK^taffe in America tliirty per cent and 
this abateiueiit the Americans certainly did not re^rard in 
the light of a tax. After this. Gren%-ille had little to s;\y. 

The House was deeply impressed by Friiiiklin's ;issertion 
that America need depend not at all on Britain for tlie neces- 
sities of life. Whereas the colonists' pride had been **to 
indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain," 
now it was "'to wear their old clothes over again till they can 
make new ones." " The people will all spin and work for 
themselves, in their own houses." 

There would be no tases collected. FrankUn asserted, 
"but such as are stained with blood." Even military pwwer 
could not carrj- the Stamp Act into execution. "Suppose." 
said he, "a military force sent into America, they will find 
nobody in arms. What are they to do.' They cannot force a 
man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They 
will not find a rebellion: they may indeed make one." 

Some of the friends of America tried to lead FrankUn on 
to make humorous repUes. But at the bar of ParHament he 
would suggest no facetious amendment*, like the changing 
of 176-5 to S765 in the date of the Stamp Act: he would hold 
no discourse about American sheep growing wool so hea%y 
that they had to drag Uttle carts behind them in which to 
carry their tails. With utmost dignity he promptly met 
every attack, saw afar off the hidden purpose of every crafty 
question and rephed with exquisite keenness and perfect self- 
possession. He avoided every pitfall. Whitefield said every 
answer he gave made the questioner appear insignificant. 

It was on February 3, 1766, that Franklin and others 
were ordered to appear before the House. February 13 he 
was excepted from further attendance. Eleven days later a 
resolution was repvorted, that leave be given to bring in a 
bm for the repeal of the Stamp Act. When the vote was 
finally taken, two hxmdred and seventy-five voted for repeal, 

[page 5 1] 



FRAXTsT.TV THE PATRIOT 

cffie htniiired and =ii> -seveii -isainst. T" - " ~ 

TT -TT. -irf nr mav b«r f c-fni'l at the eid of tK-r _ . . . ^ ; ; ; 

this pafntiiig. 

"The miriistiy." wrc^te Franiiiii- "vs-ore peadv to hns me 
for the assistarice I had grren th^n-'* The pt^.tt--"- ^ -- - - -,i_ 
suited in a great bmrst of gratitiide to Franklin^ a^ i^.>.^ a^ 
news of ft ireached America. AIL the former misgrring^ a^ to 
his patriotism, ^ere swept away: he becam.e a hens. The 
Pen-ruylBandaGazezte pobliahfid a letter from. London which read: 

"^Ix. Benj. Franklin has served voo. greatly. He was 
examined at the bar of the Hoase of Commc'GS and ga~e such 
de&F and esplicit an.^oer? to the q^nestions propose! and 
mentioned his own seitfrneits with s<;i much iT r rn nt^'s and 
resolution as at once dia hfm great credit ^.nd ser^r&i yoor 
cause not a little. I believe he ^n s I^ n:thing -:mi:ne '"-.'■• 
he imagined would serve his country." 

There was no doixbt that his brilliant answers had greatly 
aided in the carrying of the repeaL Philadeiphia was fTT- rrmT- 
nated: "the very chiltiren seemai tiistracted." A forty-fo«jt 
barge from which salutes wgre fired, and which bore the name 
of F^. * NXT.rv, was draggai through the streets in a pro- 
cession- Franklin himself c-elebrated the glad eveit by seuiins 
his wife a ^i~-r sown of British maniiiaclrure. 



The painting of Franklin beore the House of Comm:ns 
is a rexajrkafc'Ie esample of an artist's truthfrihiess to historic 
detaiL A scrutiny of it is like a visit in London in 1766. 

The room in which the Comm-jns met was not large- 
It was in St. Stephen's ChapeL which had been so remodeHed- 
it has beei said, as to convert "the Snest chapel in the king- 
dom into the worst imaginable chamber of legislation-" This 
chapel was originally built by Stephen in. 11-kl: it was rebuilt 
bv Edward I. rem.odeIled bv Edward EU- sux'olied with 



FRAXKLIX THE PATRIOT 

galleries and otherTvise altered under Queen Anne by Sir 
Christopher Wren, and destroyed in 1834 by fire. About half 
the chapel was occupied as a meeting place for the House of 
Commons, the other haK being used for lobbies. 

For dimensions, proportions and architectural details, 'Sir. 
Mills has enthusiastically ransacked ancient descriptions, 
diagrams and engravings. He has depicted as accurately as 
possible all the fittings, for instance, the slender iron pillars 
with Corinthian capitals and sconces, the slightly elevated 
speaker's chair with its Corinthian columns and the royal 
arms above; even the socket for ^ecei^'ing the bar when drawn 
across the entrance. 

Franklin, not being a member of ParUament, was obhged 
to appear behind the bar. On this occasion, the speaker was 
not occupying the chair, for the House was "in committee of 
the whole." The chair was vacant, and the mace, instead of 
lying on the table, was suspended in the rests placed on the 
front of the table for the purpose. The table was large, and 
accommodated books, papers and the official boxes of the 
ministers. 

The chairman of committees. Rose FuEer, is presiding. 
He sits at the table, with the clerks, facing the visitor, with 
his back turned to the speaker's chair. At the chairman's 
right sit members of the ministn,- and their adherents; at his 
left, the opposition members. The painting is particularly 
valuable for the many portraits of notable men included in it. 
^Ir. Mills has made an exhaustive study of this matter, com- 
paring portrait with portrait, securing likenesses of these 
men painted as nearly as possible to the date of the Stamp 
Act investigation. Wigs and details of dress are true to the 
period. For Franklin, at this time sixty years old, the artist 
has used the Martin portrait. His dignified pose is in admir- 
able contrast to the somewhat uncertain bearing of his ques- 
tioner, George Grenville, memorable as the proposer of "the 

[page 53] 



FRAXKLIX THE PATRIOT 

unhappy act." He looks as if he were just showing his igno- 
rance with regard to American postal arrangements. 

The figure at the lower right-hand corner of the picture, 
with the left side of his face showing, and his left arm over 
the back of the seat, is the sergeant-at-arms. The man, stand- 
ing at the right of the speaker, holding a wand, is a whip. 

The rows of faces merit close examination. The portraits 
of the men in the front row in front of Franklin, at his left 
hand, are, going from left to right: 

George Onslow, who, in 1767, raised a laugh against 
Grenville by proposing that he \'isit New England. 

H. S. Conway, who moved the repeal of the Stamp Act. 

Lord George Sackville (with a hat on), one of the vice- 
treasurers in the Rockingham ministry, a joint vice-chancellor 
of Ireland, one of those who voted against the repeal of the 
Stamp Act. 

Thomas Pitt, cousin to William Pitt, one who voted against 
the repeal of the Stamp Act. 

Thomas Townshend, "one of those who were most eager 
in 1783 to bring the war to a close with Uberal terms for 
America." 

Lord Richard Howe (with a hat on), treasurer of the na\'^' 
in the Rockingham ministry. 

This row is known as the Treasury Bench. 

In the second row, behind and at the left of Franklin, 
going from left to right, are: 

Edmund Burke, the firm and able friend of the colonies. 

Colonel Barre, who had fought under General Wolfe at 
Quebec, the member who made the often quoted reply to 
Charles Townshend, saying that the colonies had been planted 
by Britain's oppression, had grown up by her neglect, had 
taken up arms in her defence, etc. 

John Viscount Downe. 

Sir Robert Ladbrooke. 

[page 3i] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

Behind Franklin, the first half-face is an imaginary portrait. 
Then come portraits of: 

Sir Charles Hardy (a three-quarter view). 

Wilham Pitt, whose speeches, well known in the colonies, 
were a great help to the American cause. 

John Manners, Marquis of Granby, master of ordnance, 
one who voted against the repeal. 

Charles Townshend, paymaster in the Rockingham min- 
istry, who was outspoken in the belief that the Americans were 
over-indulged children, too selfish to contribute to the assist- 
ance of England. 

Behind the sergeant-at-arms in the front row, next a half- 
face, which is imaginary, can be seen, going from right to 
left, the faces of: 

Lord North, under whose government the tea was sent 
out, because, as he said, "the king means to try the question 
with America," and 

Alexander Wedderburn, who in 1774 heaped abuse on 
FrankUn when he appeared before the Privy Council in the 
affair of the Hutchinson letters. 



Lord Rockingham's Ministry, July, 1765 
Lord Chancellor, Lord Northington. 
Lord President, Lord Winchelsea. 
Lord Privy Seal, Duke of Newcastle. 
Lord Chamberlain, Duke of Portland. 
Vice Chamberlain, Lord ViUiers. 
Groom of the Stole, Lord Huntingdon, 
Lord Steward, Lord Talbot. 
Treasurer of the Household, Lord Edgecumbe. 
Comptroller, T. Pelham. 
Cofferer, Lord Scarborough. 
Treasurer of the Chamber, Sir Gilbert EUiot. 

[page 55] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 



Master of Horse, Duke of Rutland. 
Captain of Yeomen of the Guard, Lord Falmouth. 
Captain of Band of Pensioners, Lord Litchfield. 
First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Rockingham. 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, W. Dowdeswell. 

(Lord J. Cavendish. 
Thomas Townshend. 
George Onslow. 
First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord HaUfax. 

Sir C. Saunders. 



Lords of the Admiralty, 



Secretaries of State, 



Hon. A. Keppel. 

C. Townshend of Honingham. 

Sir W. Meredith. 

John Buller. 

Thomas Pitt. 

General Conway. 

Duke of Grafton. 



Chancellor of Duchy, Lord Strange. 

^ . . ^ / Duke of Leeds. 

Chief Justices m Eyre, | ^ord Monson. 

-r, ^ . / Lord Besborough. 

Postmasters, 1 t j /^ 0.1, 

I Lord Grantham. 

Master of Ordnance, Lord Granby. 

Secretary at War, Lord Barrington. 

Paymaster, C. Townshend. 

Treasurer of the Navy, Lord Howe. 

First Lord of Trade, Lord Dartmouth. 

Soame Jenyns. 

Edward EUot. 

John Roberts. 

Jeremiah Dyson. 

W. Fitzherbert. 

George Rice. 

Lord Palmers ton. 

[page 66] 



Lords of Trade, 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Hertford. 

Ja. Oswald. 
Vice-Treasurers, \ Lord George Sackville. 

Welbore ElHs. 

A List of the Minority in the House of Com- 
mons Who Voted Against the Bill to 
Repeal the Stamp Act 

(From a contemporaneous list.) 

J. Abercrombie, Esq., a major general and colonel of the 
44th Regiment of foot. Clackmannanshire. 

Edward Bacon, Esq. Norwich. 

William Baggot, Esq. Staffordshire. 

Sir Richard Warwick Bamfylde, bart. Devonshire. 

Lord Barrington, Secretary at war. Plymouth. 

Lord Bateman, Master of the buckhounds. Woodstock. 

Lord Robert Bertie, Lord of the King's bedchamber, a 
lieutenant-general, governor of Cork and Colonel of the 7th 
Regiment of Foot. Boston. 

Lord Brownlow Bertie. Lincolnshire. 

Peregrine Bertie, Esq. Westbury. 

WilUam Blackstone, Esq. Solicitor-general to the Queen. 
Hindon. 

Sir Walter Blacket, bart. Newcastle upon Tyne. 

Richard Wilbraham Bootle, Esq. Chester. 

Thomas Brand, Esq. Gatton. 

William Bromley, Esq. Warwickshire. 

Hon. Robert Brudenel, a groom of the bedchamber to 
the Duke of York, and colonel of the 4th regiment of foot, and 
lately made vice-chamberlain to the Queen. Marlborough. 

Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, bart. Suffolk. 

Sir Robert Burdett, bart. Tamworth. 

Honourable John Burgoyne, Esq. colonel of the 16th 
regiment of dragoons, Midhurst. 

[page 57] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

r;\^'illiam Matthew Burt, Esq. Marlow. 
'"Honourable Charles Sloane Cadogan, surveyor of His 
Majesty's waters, and treasurer to the Duke of York. Cam- 
bridgetown. 

Right Honourable Lord Frederick Campbell, Glasgow, 
Renfrew, &c. 

James Campbell Esq., governor of Stirling Castle. 
Stirlingshire. 

Marquis of Carnarvon. Radnorshire. 

Lord Carysfort. Huntingdonshire. 

Timothy Caswell, Esq. Hertford. 

Earl of Catherlough, Grimsby. 

Richard Clive, Esq. Montgomery. 

James Edward Colleton, Esq. Lestwithiel. 

Sir John Hynd Cotton, Cambridgeshire. 

James Coutts, Esq., Edinburgh city. 

Thomas Coventry, Esq., Director of the Seouth-sea Co. 
Bridport. 

Patrick Crauford, Esq. Renfrewshire. 

Asheton Cuzson, Esq. Clitheroe. 

Sir Hugh Dalrymple, bart. Dunbar, &c. 

Sir James Dash wood, bart. Oxfordshire. 

Sir John Hussey Deleval, bart. Berwick. 

John Dickson, Esq. Peebleshire. 

Sir James Douglas, admiral of the white, Orkney, &c. 

Archibald Douglas, Esq. Ueutenant-general and colonel 
of the 13th regiment of dragoons. Dumfrieshire. 

William Drake, Esq. Amersham. 

Thomas Erie Drax, Esq. Wareham. 

Sir Lawrence Dundass, bart. Newcastle under Une. 

Thomas Dundas, Esq. Richmond. 

Thomas De Grey, Esq. Norfolk. 

Jeremiah Dyson, Esq., one of the lords of trade. Yarmouth, 
Hants. 

[page 58 ] 



FRANEXIN THE PATRIOT 

John Eames, Esq., one of the masters in Chancery. Yar- 
mouth, Hants. 

Archibald Edmonstone, Esq. Dumbartonshire. 

Right Honourable Gilbert EUiot, Esq., treasurer of the 
Chamber. Roxburghshire. 

Right Honourable Welbore Ellis, Aylesbury. 

Simon Fanshawe, Esq., comptroller of the board of green 
cloth, Grampound. 

Sir Charles Farnaby, bart. East Grinstead. 

Earl of Farnham. Taunton. 

Thomas Foley, Esq. Droitwich. 

Alexander Forrester, Esq. Oakhampton. 

Colonel Eraser, Invernessshire. 

Lord Garlics, Morpeth. 

Bamber Gascoigne, Esq. Midhurst. 

Thomas Gilbert, Esq. comptroller of the King's wardrobe. 
Newcastle under hne. 

Sir John Glynne, bart. FHnt town. 

Lord Adam Gordon, Colonel of the 66th regiment of 
foot. Aberdeenshire. 

The Marquis of Granby, Master of the Ordnance and 
colonel of the Royal Regiment Horse Guards Blue, Cam- 
bridgeshire. 

Sir Alexander Grant, bart. Fortrose, &c. 

Charles Gray, Esq. Colchester. 

David Graeme, Esq. secretary to the Queen, a major- 
general, colonel of the 49th regiment of foot, Perthshire. 

Right Honourable George Grenville, Esq. Buckingham 
town. 

Thomas Grosvenor, Esq. Chester. 

Howel Gwynne, Esq. Old Sarum. 

John Hamilton, Esq. master of the King's works in Scot- 
land. Wigtown, &c. 

(page 59] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

William Gerrard Hamilton, Esq. chancellor of the ex- 
chequer in Ireland. Pontefract. 

Honourable Thomas Harley, Esq. London. 

Sir Henry Harpur, bart. Derbyshire. 

James Harris, Esq. Christchurch. 

Eliab Harvey, Esq. King's counsel, Dunwich. 

Edward Harvey, Esq., a major-general, colonel of the 3d 
regiment of light horse, and adjutant-general in North 
America. Gatton. 

George Hay, L.L.D. Dean of the arches court and judge of 
prerogative court of Canterbury. Sandwich. 

Edward Herbert, Escj. Ludlow. 

Lord Hinchinbroke. Brackley. 

Honourable George Hobart, Esq. Beeralston. 

Francis Holbourne, Esq. vice admiral of the red. Dum- 
ferling, &c. 

Rowland Holt, Esq. Suffolk. 

Jacob Houblon, Esq. Hertfordshire. 

Honourable Thomas Howard, Esq. Castle Rising. 

Thomas Orby Hunter, Esq. Winchelsea. 

Charles Jenkinson, Esq., auditor of accompts to the 
Princess Dowager of Wales, Cockermouth. 

John JoUiffe, Esq. Petersfield. 

Robert Jones, Esq. Huntingdon. 

Anthony James Keck, Esq. Leicester. 

Edward Kynaston, Esq. Montgomeryshire. 

Peter Legh, Esq. Ilchester. 

Marquis of Lome, a lieutenant general and colonel of the 
1st regiment of foot. Dover. 

Richard Lowndes, Esq. Buckinghamshire. 

Sir James Lowther, bart. Cumberland. 

Sir Herbert Lloyd, bart. Cardigan town. 

Simon Luttrell, Esq. Wigan. 

William Lynch, Esq. Weobly. 

[pa GE 6 0] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

John Ross Mackye, Esq. postmaster of the ordnance. 
Kircudbright. 

Alexander Mackay, Esq. colonel of the 65th regiment of 
foot, Sutherlandshire. 

Right Honourable James Stuart Mackenzie, Esq. Rossshire. 

Lord Robert Manners, colonel of the 3d regiment of dra- 
goons and Keutenant governor of Hull. Kingston upon Hull. 

John Manners, Esq. Housekeeper at WTiitehall. Newark. 

Samuel Martyn, Esq. treasurer to the Princess Dowager 
of Wales. Camelford. 

Paul Methuen, Esq. Warwick. 

Right Honourable Thomas Millar, Esq., lord advocate 
for Scotland, Anan, Sanquhair, &c. 

Thomas Moore Molyneux, Esq., a captain in the 3rd regi- 
ment of foot guards. Haslemere. 

Honourable Archibald Montgomery, Esq., equerry to the 
Queen, governor of Dunbarton Castle, & deputy ranger of 
St. James and Hyde Parks. Airshire. 

Sir John Mordaunt, a general of His Majesty's forces, 
governor of Sheerness, colonel of the 10th regiment of 
dragoons. Cockermouth. 

Sir Charles Mordaunt, bart. Warwickshire. 

John Morton, Esq., chief justice of Chester. Abingdon. 

John Mostyn, Esq., groom of the bedchamber to the King, 
colonel of the 1st regiment of dragoon guards and a lieutenant 
general. Malton. 

Lord Mountstuart. Bossiney. 

Richard Neville Neville, Esq. Tavistock. 

Sir Roger Newdigate, bart. Oxford University. 

Lord North. Banbury. 

Sir Fletcher Norton. Wigan. 

Right Honourable Robert Nugent, Esq. Bristol. 

Edmund Nugent, Esq., groom of the bedchamber to the 
King, and captain in the 1st regiment of footguards. St. Maws. 

[page 61] 



FRAXKLIX THE PATRIOT 

Robert Henley Ongley, Esq. Bedfordshire. 

Lord Orwell. Ipswich. 

Right Honourable James Oswald. Esq., joint vice treasurer 
of Ireland. Kinghorn. &c. 

Earl of Paunuire. a lieutenant general and colonel of the 
':21st regiment of foot. Forfarshire. 

Armstead Parker. Esq.. Peterborough. 

Thomas Pitt. Esq.. Old Sarum. 

Sir George Pococke. Admiral of the blue. Plymouth. 

George Prescot. Esq. Stockbridge. 

George Rice. Esq., a lord of trade. Carmarthenshire. 

John Robinson. Esq. Westmoreland. 

John Ixvckhart Ross, a captain of the royal na^y. Peeble- 
shire. 

Lord George Sackville. joint vice treasurer of Ireland. 
Hythe. 

Honourable Henry St. John, groom of the bedchamber to 
the Duke of York, and a lieutenant colonel. Wotton Basset. 

Sir John Sebright, bart. a major general and colonel of the 
ISth regiment of foot. Bath. 

Henry Seymour. Esq., groom of the bedchamber to the 
King. Totness. 

Fane William Sharpe. Esq. Callington. 

Jexmison Shaftoe. Esq. L-eominster. 

Henry Shitfner. Esq. !Minehead. 

James Shuttleworth, Esq. Lancashire. 

Coningsby Sibthorpe. Esq. Lincoln. 

Lord Charles Spencer, verdurer of ^^^lichwood Forest. 
Oxfordsliire. 

Right Honourable Hans Stanley. Esq., governor of the 
Isle of Wight. Southampton. 

Sir Thomas Stapleton, bart.. Oxford city. 

John Stevenson, Esq.. a director of the East India company. 
St. Michael. 

[page 6i] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

Sir Simeon Stuart, bart. a chamberlain of the Exchequer. 
Hampshire. 

Lord Strange. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
Lancashire. 

Lord George Sutton. Grantham. 

Marquis of Tavistock. Bedfordshire. 

Earl of Thoniond, Minehead. 

Thomas Thoroton, Esq. secretary to the master of the 
ordnance. Newark. 

John Pugh Pryse, Esq. Cardiganshire. 
' Edward Thurlowe, Esq., King's counsel. Tamworth. 

Honourable Henry Frederick Thynne. Weobly. 

Sir John Turner, bart. King's Lynn. 

Sir Charles Kemys Tynte. Somersetshire. 

Arthur Vansittart, Esq. Berkshire. 

Richard Vernon, Esq. Bedford. 

John Upton, Esq. Westmoreland. 

Charles Walcott, Esq. Weymouth and Melcombe. 

Robert Waller, Esq. Chipping Wycomb. 

John Rolle Walter, Esq. Exeter. 

Henry Wauchope, Esq. deputy privy purpose to His 
Majesty. Bute and Caithness. 

Honourable John Ward, Esq. Worcestershire. 

Lord Warkworth, aid-de-camp to the King. Westminster. 

Philip Carteret Webl), Esq. llaslemere. 

Alexander Wedderburn, King's counsel. Rothesay, &c. 

Thomas Whately, Esq. Luggershall. 

Honourable Thomas Willoughby, Esq. Nottinghamshire. 

Sir Armine Wodehouse, bart. Norfolk. 

Robert Wood, Esq., Brackley. 

167 Thomas Worsley, Esq., surveyor of the board of 
works, Oxford. 

168 Right Honourable Richard Rigby, Esq„ teller. 
Tavistock. 

[page 63] 




Y. 



X 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT: AT HOME 

EVERY properly brought up individual in the United 
States knows the resolutions of Richard Henry Lee, 
introduced at the meeting of the Continental Congress, 
June 7, 1776. 

"That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent States; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connec- 
tion between them and the State of Great Britain is and 
ought to be totally dissolved. 

"That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual 
measures for forming foreign alliances. 

"That a plan of confederation be prepared, and trans- 
mitted to the respective colonies for their consideration and 
approbation." 

While the delegates were awaiting instructions from their 
various colonies as to what they should do concerning these 
resolutions, it was deemed advisable to set a committee to 
work drafting a paper declaring the colonies independent, in 
case such a declaration should need to be used. On this com- 
mittee were Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John 
Adams, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman. 

Shortly before this time Franklin's health had suffered 
greatly, partly as the result of an exhausting journey he had 
made to Canada, the fatigues of which would have wearied a 
younger man. To make it more trying still, the perilous pil- 
grimage had after all been fruitless, for Canada declined to 
join the colonies against Great Britain. Rest at home had to 
a great extent restored Franklin's health, and he was able 
again to carry on his thousand activities on behalf of Pennsyl- 

[page 65 ] 



FRAXEXIX THE PATRIOT 

vania and the other colonies. His firm belief in independence 
he expressed emphatically and in his own characteristic 
fashion. Formerly he had franked his letters: "Free. B. 
Franklin"; he now enjoyed inscribing them, "B free Frank- 
Un." One of his memorable sayings was: "Those who would 
give up essential hberty for a Httle temporarv* safety deser\'e 
neither Uberti*- nor safety." 

As is well known, the Declaration of Independence was 
drafted by Jefferson. Franklin and John Adams made a few 
verbal changes, which may be seen in their writing on the 
document. Franklin himself, though abler with his pen than 
any of his fellow-countrymen, never drafted a state paper 
which was really famovis. His biographer, Parton. says: 

"He would have put a joke into the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence if it had fallen to him to write it. At this time, he 
was a humorist of fifty years* standing. Franklin had become 
fixed in the habit of iUustrating great truths by grotesque and 
famihar similes. His jokes, the circidating medium of Con- 
gress, were as helpful to the cause as Jay's conscience or 
Adams's fire: they restored good humor, and relieved the 
tedium of delay, but were out of place in formal, exact, and 
authoritative papers." 

One famous occasion when his humor reheved the tension 
was the time during the debate in Congress when .Jefferson 
sat beside him, "writhing under the mutilations" being per- 
petrated by the delegates, as he felt, on his paper. "I have 
made it a rule," said Franklin to Jefferson, "whenever in my 
power, to avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be re- 
viewed by a pubHc body." Then he told him the well-known 
story of his friend who started out with the sign, "John Thomp- 
son, Hatter, makes and sells Hats for ready money," with a 
figure of a hat subjoined. By taking the ad\'ice of his friends, 
he ultimately had nothing left of his sign but "John Thomp- 
son," with the figm:^ of the hat. 

( ? i c- 3 6 6] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

Franklin was wont to relieve the weariness of long-drawn- 
out discussions by introducing a little fun. One of his jokes, 
when a public matter had grown tedious, was as follows: 

"I begin to be a little of the sailor's mind when they were 
handing a cable out of a store into a ship, and one of 'em said: 
' 'Tis a long, heavy cable. I wish we could see the end of it.' 

' ,' says another, 'if I believe it has any end; somebody 

has cut it off!'" 

Americans of a later date, to whom the fortunate outcome 
of the planning of the Continental Congress is an old story, 
can hardly realize what a serious moment it was when the time 
arrived for signing the Declaration. The arguments of 
John Dickinson and others were too numerous and strong 
to be entirely forgotten. As the members were about to sign, 
tradition tells us that Hancock said, "We must be unan- 
imous; there must be no pulling different ways; we must 
all hang together," and that Franklin seized this excellent 
opportunity to make the grimly witty response, "Yes; we 
must indeed hang together, or, most assuredly we shall all 
hang separately!" 

Franklin signed liis name with that gay flourish with 
which he commonly decorated his autograph. The signature 
is very well written. It stands third in the fourth column of 
names, but the arrangement is such as to throw no hght on 
the question of who signed first after Hancock. 

The real date of the signing of the famous instrument has 
been the subject of much discussion. Passages from the 
writings of Adams, Franklin and Jefferson can be quoted, 
which point to July 4 as the date. McKean is equally definite 
in saying that nobody signed that day. John H. Hazelton, 
the author of The Declaration of Independence, Its History, 
and other authorities who have weighed the evidence on this 
point, have shown that on July 4 the declaration was adopted, 
that on July 19 Congress resolved "that the declaration passed 

[PAOE 67 ) 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

on the 4th be fairly engrossed on parchment," and that on 
August 2 it was signed by most of the members. The Journal 
of Congress records for August 2, 

"The declaration of independance being enerossed & com- 
pared at the table was signed." (The spelling follows the 
original.) 

Some of the names to be seen on the parchment docu- 
ment in the State Department at Washington were added 
after August 2; McKean, Thornton, Gerry, Wolcott and a 
number of others were not present at the formal signing. 



The painting shows Franklin just affixing his signature 
to the Declaration of Independence, while some of the other 
signers stand or sit near. Reading from left to right, the 
portraits are those of: 

Lyman Hall of Georgia. 

Charles Thompson, secretary of the Continental Con- 
gress, whose signature does not appear on the parchment 
Declaration. 

Samuel Huntington of Connecticut. 

"William \A'hipple of New Hampshire. 

William Paca of Maryland. 

Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the wTiter of the in- 
strument. 

John Hancock (in the Speaker's chair) of Massachusetts, 
president of the Continental Congress. 

Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. 

John Adams (seated) of Massachusetts, on the committee 
which drew up the Declaration, and its chief defender in the 
debates over it. 

Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. 

William EUery of Rhode Island. 

Philip Livingston (seated) of New York. 

Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey. 

[page 68] 



FRANKLIN THE PATRIOT 

Joseph Hewes of North CaroHna. 

Caesar Rodney (seated) of Delaware. 

These men were among those who ahnost certainly signed 
August 2, 1776. 

Even a casual glance reveals the individuality in all these 
faces; a second look discovers how successfully the artist has 
painted the features and expressions which are to most 
Americans like those of familiar friends. Nearly all the faces 
show something of the anxiety and hard thought which the 
adoption of the Declaration brought with it. Franklin's ex- 
pression, on the other hand, is indicative of the easy good- 
nature with which even in somewhat broken health he was 
accustomed to face all events, even the most critical. The 
average age of these men at the time of signing was about 
forty years; Rutledge was only about twenty-seven, Jeflferson 
about thirty-three, and Franklin about seventy. 

The scene is in the Old State House, now Independence 
Hall. Mr. Mills has shown it as it looks since its recent restora- 
tion. Fortunately the original plans were available, so that 
the hall in all its detail now looks as it did in Franklin's 
time. The silver inkstand, desk and chair are still carefully 
preserved, and the artist made a minute study of their meas- 
urements and patterns, and has reproduced them with abso- 
lute correctness, as well as every pilaster, base and moulding 
in this part of the finely ornamented old room. The inkstand 
was originally used by the Pennsylvania Assembly. At the 
signing of the Constitution of the United States, the same 
table was used, and the little painting on the back of the chair, 
which Mr. Mills has reproduced, acquired a significance of 
its own. The Constitution had at last been drafted and was 
to be signed. Madison tells us that when some members were 
signing, Franklin said: 

"I have often and often, in the course of the session, and 
the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at 

[PAQ E 69] 



FRAXKLIX THE PATRIOT 

that behind the president, without being able to tell whether 
it was rising or setting; but now, at length, I have the happi- 
ness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."' 

There are three other paintings of the signing of the Dec- 
laration of Independence : one by Robert Edge Pine, completed 
by Edward Savage; one by Jonathan Trumbull, and one by a 
French artist, Demarest. All three pictures are very inaccu- 
rate as regards detail. 



[page 70] 




y. 

x 

y. 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST: IN FRANCE 

FROM the beginning of the colonists' difficulties with 
the mother country it was a question in the minds 
of many whether, if a war should ensue, the Ameri- 
cans could stand out against Great Britain. At this time 
France had just (1763) ceded to Great Britain Canada and 
other valuable possessions, and her ancient dislike of England 
was by this loss naturally intensified. As a matter of course, 
many colonists thought of France as a possible helper. There 
were in France, moreover, statesmen who, at the first hint of 
war here, eagerly anticipated the likelihood that Great Brit- 
ain's strength might be reduced. They were willing enough 
to secure for France the rich colonial trade which had hitherto 
been England's, and favored every measure which might help 
bring about her loss of the American colonies. "I fancy," 
Franklin prophesied, "that intriguing nations would hke very 
well to meddle on occasion, and would blow up the coals be- 
tween Britain and her colonies." The Comte de Vergennes, 
the minister for foreign affairs, was very eager to see an alli- 
ance made with the colonies. 

The Continental Congress appointed a secret committee 
which should cautiously correspond with friends in several 
countries of Europe, particularly in France. As the result of 
their operations, very welcome shiploads of supplies were 
surreptitiously sent to the colonies. The most important 
member of the Committee of Correspondence was Frankhn. 
Shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed, 
Congress appointed (September 26, 1776) Franklin, Jeffer- 
son and Silas Deane as agents to represent the colonies at 
the court of France. Jefferson's place, because of his wife's 
illness, was taken by Arthur Lee. Silas Deane was a Connecti- 

Ip AGE 7 1 ] 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST 

cut man. Arthur Lee, of Virginia, was a brother of Richard 
Henry Lee. "I am old, and good for nothing," Franklin said 
with regard to his own appointment, "but as the storekeepers 
say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a fag end; you may 
have me for what you please." 

This "fag end" was already of great reputation in France. 
Even the peasantry knew of his feats with lightning, and 
had seen pages of the French version of Poor Richard's 
Almanac, which were sometimes posted up in their cot- 
tages. He received an affectionate welcome, which proved 
the introduction to a sort of idolatry which lasted throughout 
his French sojourn. He was "the venerable sage," who, 
"with his gray hairs flowing down upon his shoulders, his 
staft" in his hand, the spectacles of wisdom on his nose, was 
the perfect picture of true philosophy and virtue." In an 
incredibly short time every home had its portrait of "le 
grand Franklin"; every snuff-box had his face on the cover. 
He was equally admired by philosophers and scholars, by 
courtiers and ladies of rank and fashion. He was invariably a 
good companion, they found, and as witty as they had ex- 
pected "Poor Richard" to be. As a man he resembled in 
many points the gifted Frenchmen of his time; for instance, 
Voltaire or Beaumarchais. He was equally distinguished in 
every-day matters of business, and in literature and science. 
The fact that he possessed all this versatility in spite of old 
age was interesting to his new friends. He appealed greatly to 
the imagination of the French; certain details, like his wearing 
of an unfashionable fur cap, spoke to them of the frontier, red 
Indians and pathless forests. They were pleased to think of 
him as a naive philosopher who had lived near to nature, and 
who was now almost single-handed wresting hberty from the 
tyrant for his people in the western wilderness. Liberty was 
a beloved word; a dozen years later came the French Revolu- 
tion. 

[page 7 2 J 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST 

Dinners and week-end visits occupied much of Franklin's 
time. His house at Passy, a suburb of Paris, was noted for 
its hospitaHty. It was well that the old man could have some 
gaiety in his life. His old enemy, the gout, which had begun 
about 1749, often tormented him. His work as diplomat was 
manifold: he was "merchant, banker, judge of admiralty, 
consul, director of the navy, ambassador to France and negoti- 
ator with England for the exchange of prisoners." In the 
American outlook there was for some time little to cheer him. 
Sympathetic as France was, she feared to take the field openly 
against Great Britain until either Spain had joined her or she 
had been able to strengthen her own forces, or until the 
colonists had succeeded in somewhat weakening England. 
Tremendous enterprises were undertaken in France for the 
help of American independence, but, since every appearance 
of friendliness with England had to be maintained, the most 
elaborate precautions had to be resorted to in order to keep 
these undertakings secret. Supplies, for instance, were regu- 
larly contributed from the king's government, but they were 
shipped as merchandise by a business firm, "Hortales et Cie.," 
which existed merely for this purpose. 

There were other difficulties. Congress did not, or could 
not, organize the embassy in any satisfactory way. This 
fact, and the extreme secrecy which must be maintained, 
made an orderly conduct of affairs complicated. Among the 
agents and other Americans who were awaiting in Paris an 
opportunity to represent the new republic at other courts, 
there grew up a deplorable spirit. Some of the suspicions 
voiced at that bewildering time were not laid to rest for many 
years, and some of the acts of injustice committed could be 
only tardily and imperfectly rectified. Franklin had to endure 
endless interference and abuse at the hands of some of the 
agents. In judging of this time, however, it should be re- 
membered that these men were working in the dark, and facing 

[page 7 .S ] 



FRAXKLIN THE DIPLO^L\TIST 

personal ruin as well as the discomfiture of their country. 
Undoubtedly Lee's uncomfortable disposition would unavoid- 
ably have embroiled his associates; still, there may sometimes 
have been just a grain of reason at the foundation of his sus- 
picions. M. de Rayneval's criticisms were harsh, but may 
have had some warrant. 

"I am sorry to be obhged to add, monseigneur," he says 
in writing to Vergennes, "that personal disinterestedness and 
pecuniary integrity have shed no lustre on the birth of the 
American Republic. All its agents have derived exorbitant 
profit from manufactures. A selfish and calculating spirit is 
widespread in this land and although I can well see that 
Hmits are put to its extension, there is no condemnation of 
the sentiment. Mercantile cupidity forms perhaps one of 
the distinctive traits of the American, especially the northern 
people, and will undoubtedly exercise an important influence 
on the future destiny of the repubUc." 

As a matter of fact, the perplexing circumstances made 
it impossible to judge fairly of a man's disinterestedness. 
Doubtless many were more truly patriotic than the evidence 
seemed to indicate. These were times when men sometimes 
laid down their reputations for their country- instead of 
their lives. A diplomatic circle had as many perils as a 
battle-field. 

The military losses in America added to the unhappiness 
of the agents. Only Frankhn's popularity could have obtained 
the needfid loans and ammunition from the king's government. 
TNTien Washington had lost everywhere, and when Howe and 
Burgoyne were about to cut the country in two with their 
well-equipped expeditions, the disagreements of the agents 
were lost in a general feehng of despair. Xo French alliance 
seemed possible. 

"Howe has taken Philadelphia," said some one who had 
heard the sad rumor. 

[page 7 4] 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST 

"I beg your pardon, sir," corrected Franklin, keeping up 
a courageous front to the last. "Philadelphia has taken 
Howe!" He hoped his words might prove true. It really 
turned out that Howe was shut up in Philadelphia for some 
months. 

One day a young messenger from Massachusetts stepped 
out of a carriage at the door of Franklin's house at Passy. 
The agents were talking in the courtyard. Franklin went to 
meet him, with the all-important question: 

"Is Philadelphia taken.?" 

"Yes, sir," said Austin. 

Upon hearing this, Dr. Frankhn clasped his hands, and 
turned as if to go back into the house. 

"But, sir," said Austin, "I have greater news than that. 
General Burgoyne and his whole army are prisoners of war!" 

"For months after this," Austin says, "Dr. Franklin would 
break from one of those musings in which it was his habit to 
indulge, and, clasping his hands together, exclaim, 'Oh, Mr. 
Austin, you brought us glorious news!' " 

These tidings arrived December 3, 1777. There was re- 
joicing in France as over a French victory. There was now 
little doubt that, if France were openly in the field beside her, 
the young republic could bring the war to a successful termi- 
nation. "Now is the time to act," said the Comte de Ver- 
gennes, " aut nunc mit nunquam; the lost time was perhaps 
not our fault, but there is no more now to lose." The discus- 
sion of details was made as short as possible, and the "treaties 
of commerce and alliance" were signed on the sixth of 
February, 1778. 

On this triumphant day, Franklin wore, we are told, the 
same coat of spotted Manchester velvet which he had last 
worn on the most humiliating day of his life, four years 
before, the day of the hearing before the Privy Council of 
England. Matters relative to letters written by Governor 

[page 7 6 J 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST 

Hutchinson had led to an inquiry. Wedderburn, the SoHcitor 
General, accused Franklin of obtaining these letters by dis- 
honest means and of using them dishonorably, and made the 
occasion an excuse for pouring forth upon FrankUn invective 
that is almost unbelievable. Through all the slanderous 
accusations and insults, some of which are said to have been 
considered unprintable, Franklin stood near the fireplace, 
"conspicuously erect, without the smallest movement of any 
part of his body." He was absolutely silent, and his face was 
as innnovable as if it had been carved out of wood. After the 
hearing he left the Cockpit, as the place of meeting was called, 
still silent. Horace Walpole's epigram concerning this affair 
of the Cockpit is worth knowing: 

"Sarcastic Sawne3% swol'n with spite and prate 
On silent Franklin poured his venal hate. 
The calm philosopher, without reply. 
Withdrew, and gave his country liberty." 

This incident permanently "changed the American senti- 
ment toward him [Franklin] from lukewarm admiration to 
inflamed respect, enthusiasm, and affection." 

The story has it, that after this affair of the Cockpit, 
Franklin was never seen to wear the Manchester velvet coat 
again until the time came to sign the treaty of alliance with 
France. Some doubt has been cast on the story, apparently 
because of a tradition that Franklin wore this coat at the 
signing of the treaty of peace which ended the Revolutionary 
War (in 1783). At this time he seems undoubtedly to have 
worn black, but there is no reasonable ground for doubting 
that Franklin wore this velvet coat both at the Cockpit and at 
the signing of the treaty of alliance. \Mien asked for his reason 
for this by one of the Americans in Paris, he smiled and said 
nothing. There is a tradition that Deane inquired why he wore 
this coat, and that Frankhn replied, "To give it its revenge." 

[page 7 6] 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST 

This painting shows the signing of the treaty of alliance 
between the united colonies and France, February 6, 1778. 

The portraits, from left to right, are: 

William Temple Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's grandson, 
present as his private secretary. 

M. Conrad Alexandre Gerard de Rayneval (seated), 
secretary of the council, who signed on the part of the king. 

Franklin, Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, the three repre- 
sentatives of the colonies at the court of France. 

William Temple Franklin, at this time about nineteen or 
twenty, was the son of Benjamin Franklin's son William, the 
governor of New Jersey. He sympathized enthusiastically 
with the cause of the colonies, although Governor Franklin, 
greatly to his father's sorrow, sided with the king. "Temple 
Franklin" was a favorite with his grandfather, who educated 
him at a school near London, and had him with him at Passy. 
"My grandson," he said in a letter, "whom you may remem- 
ber when a saucy boy at school, is my amanuensis." 

M. de Rayneval was of an Alsatian family, and was, 
according to John Durand, endowed with a philosophic mind, 
great tact and much sagacity. He was the first minister to 
the United States from France. There is a portrait of him in 
Independence Hall, which was painted by C. W. Peale at the 
request of Congress. 

The actual table on which the signing of the treaty took 
place is depicted here. It is still preserved at the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs in Paris. The rest of the furniture and fittings 
in the room conform to the French fashions of the last quarter 
of the eighteenth century. 

Franklin is represented without a wig. Although earlier 
in life he had worn the regulation wig, in France we hear of 
"his straight unpowdered hair. " "Franklin appeared at court 
in the dress of an American farmer," wrote Mme. Campan. 
Doubtless his was, as she said, in "singular contrast with the 

[p AOE 77 J 



FRANKLIN THE DIPLOMATIST 

laced and embroidered coats, &c. of the courtiers of Versailles." 
In tlie hitler part of his life Franklin, although in general 
well-formed, was inclined somew-hat to corpulency. For the 
color of the INIanchester velvet coat which he wore at the 
signing of this treaty, the artist was able to procure a sample 
in Paris, where there were records of his dress on this occasion. 
The faces in this painting are studied with care from 
authentic portraits. Arthur Lee wears a dissatisfied look as 
if still nervously anxious over the much-debated "molasses 
article" in the treaty. 



[page 78] 




FRANKLINS FINAL HOME-COMING 



FRANKLIN'S FINAL HOME-COMING 

AFTER the signing of the treaty of alHance, Franklin 
continued in France about seven years. It was fortu- 
nate for the world that this could be, for he played a 
valuable part in drafting the treaty of peace which closed our 
Revolutionary War, and in reconciling the British and French 
representatives to its terms. 

In a treaty with Prussia (1785), through the influence of 
Franklin there were incorporated, says J. W. Foster, two ad- 
vanced principles of international law, the abolition of pri- 
vateering and the exemption in war of private property at 
sea. This has been called "the best lesson of humanity which 
a philosophical king (Frederick II) acting in concert with a 
philosophical patriot (Franklin), could possibly give to the 
princes and statesmen of the earth." 

Franklin was uninterruptedly a favorite with the French 
court. Among the agents from America he had enemies who 
tried repeatedly to persuade Congress to recall him. But 
Congress appreciated that he was doing what no other man 
could do, paid no heed to his traducers and refused his own 
requests to be relieved of the hard work. At last, in 1785, 
when he was in his eightieth year, the burden of his diplo- 
matic and social duties in Paris seemed to him too heavy to 
be borne longer, and he succeeded in getting his release. 
Thomas Jefferson took up the diplomatic duties at Paris. 
"It is you, sir, who replace Dr. Franklin?" people used to ask 
on being introduced to him, and he often replied, "No one 
can replace him, sir, I am only his successor." 

The malady from which Franklin had suffered many years 
made travel very painful, but in a litter belonging to Queen 

[page 79] 



FRAXKLIX'S FIXAL HOME-COMIXG 

Marie Antoinette, carried by two large mules, he managed 
(July, 17S5) to make the journey to the coast. 0\-ation after 
ovation greeted "le grand Franklin" along the road. 

At Ha^■Te de Grace he embarked for England. Of the 
crossing of the Channel he writes: "I was not in the least 
inconvenienced by the voyage^ but my children were very 
sick." The "children'' were his two favorite grandsons, 
William Temple Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache. 
"Temple Franklin." the son of Gov. WilHam Franklin of Xew 
Jersey, had been his private secretary' in Paris. For him he 
had ambitions for a career a5 diplomatist and statesman, 
which were not realized. Benjamin Franklin Bache was the 
son of his daughter. Sarah, and Richard Bache of Philadelphia. 
He was the "Little King Bird" and the "Bunny Boy" of 
Franklin's correspondence while he was in London. During 
his residence in France he had had Ben at school in Geneva, 
and the boy had often visited him at Passy. After his return 
to America he set him up in the printer's trade. For both 
these grandsons he had a warm affection. 

TMiile waiting at Southampton for his ship, Franklin re- 
ceived visits from many EngUsh friends and admirers. He 
embarked July "27 on board the London Packet, a Philadelphia 
vessel commanded by Capt. Thomas Truxton. By September 
IS the ship was in Delaware Bay. 

''With the flood in the morning,'" says Franklin's diary, 
"came a Kght breeze, which brought us above Gloucester 
Point, in full view of de^r Philadelphia I when we again cast 
anchor to wait for the health officer: who, having made his 
visit, and fi.nding no sickness, gave us leave to land. My 
son-in-law came with a boat for us; we landed at Market 
Street wharf, where we were received by a crowd of people 
with huzzas, and accompanied with acclamations quite to 
my door. Found my family well. God be praised and thanked 
for all his mercies!'" 

1p A 6 E SO] 



FRANKLIN'S FINAL HOME-COMING 

Franklin lived for about four years after returning to 
America. His wife, who, despite all urging, had never been 
willing to brave the perils of an ocean voyage, had died in 
1774 during her husband's agency in England. His sister 
Jane, Mrs. Mecom, he found overjoyed at his return. He 
made his home with his daughter "Sally" and her family, 
having regained "his niche after being kept out of it twenty- 
four years by foreign employment." "I . . .am again sur- 
rounded by my friends, with a large family of grandchildren 
about my knees, an affectionate, good daughter and son-in- 
law to take care of me." 

He had hoped when he sailed for home to enjoy undis- 
turbed domestic quiet. "I did my last public act in the 
country" [signing the Prussian treaty in France], he said, 
"just before I set out. I have continued to work till late in 
the day; 'tis time I should go home to bed." But a very im- 
portant duty still awaited him. The United States Constitu- 
tion, which should ensure the permanence of the work done 
by Washington, Franklin and the other patriots, was still to 
be written and adopted. In spite of weariness and physical 
suffering, Franklin served in the Federal Convention, lending 
a guiding hand at many critical moments. His great contri- 
bution was the suggestion that the lower house in Congress 
should represent the nation according to population, but that 
in the senate each state should have eciual representation. 
"^Mien a broad table is to be made," he said, "and the edges 
of the planks do not fit, the artist takes a little from both, 
and makes a good joint." Without this compromise probably 
no federal union would have been possible. Moreover, prob- 
ably the members would not have all signed the Constitution, 
had it not been for Frankhn's speech, asserting that with all 
its shortcomings this Constitution was better than none; 
quoting the woman who said, "I don't know how it happens, 
sister, but I meet with nobody but myself that is always in 

[page 81] 



FRANKLIN'S FINAL HOME-COMING 

the right"; and reminding the members of their enemies who 
were confidently expecting "to hear that our councils are 
confounded like those of the builders of Babel, and that our 
States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter 
for the purpose of cutting one another's throats." 

The Constitution was unanimously adopted September 
17, 1787. 

Franklin died April 17, 1790. Till the very end of his days 
he continued to be sunny, active in mind and brimful of 
humor and wisdom. Even paroxysms of pain only temporarily 
interrupted the characteristic anecdotes with which he enter- 
tained his friends. When moderately comfortable, he talked 
over public matters, heard his grandchildren say their spelling 
lessons, or wrote letters to his friends abroad. He lived to 
see the beginning of the French Revolution, and to feel some 
anxiety for his friends in France. It is noteworthy that, even 
in the excitements of the revolution, France went into mourn- 
ing for Dr. Franklin. 

"I have public business enough to keep me from ennui," 
wrote the old philosopher, "and private amusement besides 
in conversation, books, my garden, and cribbage. ... I have 
indeed now and then a little compunction in reflecting that I 
spend time so idly; but another reflection comes to relieve 
me, whispering, 'You know that the soul is immortal; why 
then should you be such a niggard, of a little time, when you 
have a whole eternity before you?' . . . The last hours are 
always the most joyous." 



The last picture of Mr. Mills's series shows the final home- 
coming of Franklin after his long diplomatic service. During 
the twenty-four years which, except for a short stay in Amer- 
ica, he had been away, he had wrought great tilings for the 
united colonies. Now, in his eightieth year, he comes back 
to his own people. The old philosopher and statesman stands 

[PAQE 82] 



FRANKLIN'S FINAL HOME-COMING 

erect in a rowboat, with his hat in his hand and his face 
upHfted to receive the grateful ovations of the crowds that 
fill Market Street wharf and the neighboring shipping. The 
boatman is just bringing the dory up to the dock. Behind 
Franklin sits his son-in-law, Richard Bache, holding a strong- 
box. In the background is a ship, possibly the one which 
Franklin has just left. The ships are of the type commonly 
seen at this period. 

In none of the series has Mr. Mills better shown the 
grandeur and dignity of Franldin than in this painting. To 
one who had spent nine years in attendance on the Bourbon 
court of France, the reception accorded him on his return to 
Philadelphia must have seemed simple and democratic in the 
extreme. But Franklin felt the sincerity of it, and saw its 
homely beauty. Mr. Mills has well expressed the aged man's 
joy in this outburst of affection. One cannot look upbn his 
serenely happy face without knowing that the shouts of his 
neighbors and fellow-citizens meant far more to the old 
patriot than all the applause that had been given him so 
lavishly by the gay court of Louis XVI. 



[page 831 



